Beloit, WI Crime and Housing (Madison: rental, crime rate, townhouse)

[themcmanigals]

My wife and I are looking at relocating from Minot, ND. We were wondering what the crime in Beloit is like and how is the housing situation?

[Drover]

Crime is a minor issue but an issue nonetheless. To hear your average Wisconsinite tell it Beloit is a crime-ridden armpit but it's not an urban city with urban problems.

There's not a lot of rental stock in Beloit, and a lot of what little rental stock exists is consumed by students at Beloit College. A decent house starts at around 80 grand, though at that price you can count on it being in serious need of updating. Housing stock consists of anything from 1930s-era four-squares to 1960s/70s/80s-era ranches and some contemporary townhouse developments on the edges of town. Beloit has seen better days and a fair portion of its housing stock is showing some wear and tear.

Schools in Beloit proper don't have the best reputation. If you have school-aged kids, you might want to look in a surrounding town outside of the Beloit school district.

[themcmanigals]

Thanks for the input.

[SomeGuyNamedTracy]

Crime truly is an issue in Beloit, especially when compared to other cities of similiar size in Wisconsin. Beloit's population is just over 36,000 people. The latest Uniform Crime Statistics are from 2009. In 2009, Beloit had 5 homicides. (13.8 per 100,000 residents) Compare that to Madison, a city about 7x as big with a population just over 235,000. In 2009, there were 4 only homicides total. (1.7 per 100,000 people)

With that being said, I like Beloit. There are plenty of nice areas to live. If schools are your concern, there are many smaller school districts wthin a 20 minute drive from Beloit you may want to look into.

[Drover]

Originally Posted by SomeGuyNamedTracy

Crime truly is an issue in Beloit, especially when compared to other cities of similiar size in Wisconsin. Beloit's population is just over 36,000 people. The latest Uniform Crime Statistics are from 2009. In 2009, Beloit had 5 homicides. (13.8 per 100,000 residents) Compare that to Madison, a city about 7x as big with a population just over 235,000. In 2009, there were 4 only homicides total. (1.7 per 100,000 people)

With that being said, I like Beloit. There are plenty of nice areas to live. If schools are your concern, there are many smaller school districts wthin a 20 minute drive from Beloit you may want to look into.

The problem with using a single year for crime statistics is that it shows a snapshot and but it doesn't capture trends. That can particularly problematic in a city as small as Beloit where a very small numerical change in a high-profile crime category like homicide -- just a difference of 2 or 3 per year -- can create huge per-capita changes from year to year. Is the 13.8 per 100K in 2009 indicative of ongoing problems, or is it an anomaly? We won't be able to tell for a few years; but the running average from 1999 through 2009 is 5.54 per 100,000, which is right about at the national average and lot less dramatic than the 13.8 per 100K snapshot taken in 2009. Even the running average is exacerbated by the 2009 spike; from 1999 through 2008 it's 4.71 per 100K. Fact is the crime rate in most crime categories have swung up and down so much from year to year -- and not in concert with each other -- that it's difficult to discern a long-term trend one way or the other.