[unf0rgiven6262]

Originally Posted by vegasboy

This may help you determine what areas to avoid. The data from that website with the colour coded map is very old. Please use Las Vegas Metro Police website for the most current info.

According to a local realtor in LV, "there is no truly good area or bad area in the Las Vegas Valley. All areas have great neighborhoods and all areas have a bad area or crime neighborhood." Do you agree with this statement?

She goes on saying "It would be unethical for any Realtor to claim they knew the best or worst place. I recommend to use the link provided. You can put in a street address, Zip code, select on a map etc.

It will tell you all crime that has happened in that area in the last 60 days. It will be the most accurate information. It is the only information I would rely on as it actually tells you what crime happened on what day and time."

CrimeView Community Incident Map : Las Vegas Metro Police Department

It's as accurate as any other stream of data you can look at about crime. Just keep in mind that crimes reported to the police account for roughly 10% of all crimes actually committed.

[Willy702]

Once a month this site gets the same uneducated request for this. Get it straight, if you want to be a true real estate investor stop thinking this way. Yes crime is worse in some areas compared to others, but that is not how a good investor looks at it. If you plan to live in the unit then you probably want to know about the crime, but if you are buying it for rental you need to focus on other things such as vacancies and ROI characteristics because the price of the unit and its current listed comps and recent sold comps will already price crime and the character of the area in.

The key is not to look at where crime is now, but where it is likely to go in the future. If you get a middle of the road area today and crime blows up there then you'll have a unit you will struggle to rent or sell in 5 years. If you buy something at the bottom of the market and crime improves somewhat or it gets a bit of regeneration going you will be in the best shape of anyone. The safest areas will see fair demand, but usually have the worst cash flow and ROI. Blue collar areas with low homeownership rates and convenient access to public transportation are almost always the best investments. You'll put up with a little more headache and the units won't be much to look at, but they are little gold mines you can replicate over and over if done right. And without fail they will be in the top third of crime areas.

[vegasboy]

Originally Posted by Willy702

Once a month this site gets the same uneducated request for this. Get it straight, if you want to be a true real estate investor stop thinking this way.

VERY good post except for the (uneducated) first sentence. There is NEVER such a thing as an uneducated question/request. "No man really becomes a fool until he stops asking questions"

Most of what you say goes for my home country (South Africa) too where I have been investing in real estate for more than 15 years.

But when you start investing in uncharted territory, (I started investing in the US about two years ago) questions may sound "uneducated." Great post, Willy, I'm sure you are applying those principles too

[vegasboy]

Originally Posted by vegasboy

CrimeView Community Incident Map : Las Vegas Metro Police Department

On the "Identified Features Index" where it shows the different types of crime, murder and rape does not appear. Anyone know why that may be?

[olecapt]

Originally Posted by vegasboy

On the "Identified Features Index" where it shows the different types of crime, murder and rape does not appear. Anyone know why that may be?

Homicide does. Though they are not always reported. Rape is not allowed in Clark County...

[vegasboy]

So they don't differentiate between “guilty mind" and "guilty act" homicide. I don't understand what you mean by "rape not allowed...." Are they not allowed to publish the stats for rape?

[olecapt]

As I told you this stuff is not remotely clean. Las Vegas actually has a relatively high rape rate but does not publish rapes in their incident list. Concerns about privacy of victims I expect. Other jurisdictions in Clark County do report rapes however.

These are preliminary so man kills man is the best you can get. And you don't get all of these. Some don't appear for whatever reason.