VIC how do you determine the safety of a suburb

Discussion in 'Where to Buy' started by Ben JH, 5th Jan, 2021.

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  1. MB18

    MB18 Well-Known Member

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    You miss the point - my area (no doubt) has high crime stats. It's not problematic breakins, or watching beatings and deaths that cause the high crime stats, it's that I'm in a bar/nightclub precinct.
    Every Saturday night the suburbanites flood the area enmass with the inevitable drunken shenanigans that go with it.
    The nightlife is why I live there, it doesnt mean I'm twice as likley to be broken into or stabbed to death, or become a victim of domestic violence, which taking the stats at face value would have you believe.

    Here is some pub trivia....
    The country with the highest rate of crime per capita is the Vatican thanks to pick pockets and a low resident population.
    I dont take that to conclude it's a bad place however - alhough the crime stats would disagree.
     
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  2. Ben JH

    Ben JH Well-Known Member

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    I agree that per 100 residents denominator will inflate the number in busy districts.

    Statistically speaking, an area with a higher number of crime does indicate a higher chance of crime. But like you said, if more people coming to the area, it reduces the chance of you being the victim. For example, 10 stabs per weekend over 10,000 partygoers in the area means 0.1%.

    The key takeaway is don't get stabbed :)
     
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  3. John_BridgeToBricks

    John_BridgeToBricks Buyer's Agent Business Member

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  4. RonnyYil Property

    RonnyYil Property Well-Known Member

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    I know this might sound a little strange but something I noticed is that we have a neighbouring property that rents, they're the only renter in the neighbourhood and they park their cars very inconsiderately. Making it very hard to turn in and out etc and blocking the footpath for hours which is not allowed. They party about twice a month loudly, only one in like 100 houses around the block.

    Short answer - cars parked blocking the footpath, cars parked on the grass are both starting point red flags for me as they point towards an occupant who doesn't give a crap about the neighbourhood.
     
  5. The Y-man

    The Y-man Moderator Staff Member

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    Unfortunately you can have ferals renting in the best suburbs - so no way to really avoid this :(

    The Y-man
     
  6. RonnyYil Property

    RonnyYil Property Well-Known Member

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    True - just strange because we live in a Hills suburb where two tenants in a row next to us have been atrocious. Both times consisting of a group of people who couldn't afford the high rent individually. Across the road the same problem with tenants last year. 3 out of 3 times dealing with renters has made me bias to seeing them as maybe not feral but it's obvious they don't care about neighbours.

    If I was to ever buy a house to live in, good suburb or not I would be researching if the neighbours are renters or not.
     
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  7. Piston_Broke

    Piston_Broke Well-Known Member

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  8. Antoni0

    Antoni0 Well-Known Member

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    The OP asked "how to evaluate the safety of a suburb", they didn't ask how many people get caught for petty crimes like J-walking or how many don't pay a parking fine, they are obviously talking about the more serious crimes that may affect the well-being of your life in a suburb.

    I addressed it in an earlier post with data that I put up with stats individualising the crime type if you'd taken care to look, nobody is saying to look at the overall crime number figures alone. Look at the figure of more serious crimes per the population, it makes the probability of something occurring to you higher, it's simple maths.



    m1.PNG
     
  9. jaybean

    jaybean Well-Known Member

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    The problem is Australia in general is still so incredibly safe, that even if you look at the worst areas, the crime rate per 100,000 (I think it's based on a 100k average) is still so minuscule that the difference between the best and worst suburbs can seem pretty small.

    And even within a suburb you have exceptional streets that almost feel like they're from a different part of the country, and some streets that are ghetto as hell. It's a hard thing to quantify.
     
  10. Ben JH

    Ben JH Well-Known Member

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    Yea, street-level crime data is the gold standard. I'm so pleased to see that being available from Queen Police Service, thanks to @Antoni0.

     
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  11. jakc

    jakc Well-Known Member

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    @Ben JH - SEIFA Socioeconomic Data in an App

    Ignore the fact its about the lockdowns. Mesh block level data for free, but not focusing on crime. But still very important when decision making for purchasing.

    The data comes in a couple of flavours from ABS. SEIFA is a suite of four indexes that have been created from social and economic Census information. That is, the ABS broadly defines relative socio-economic advantage and disadvantage in terms of people's access to material and social resources, and their ability to participate in society.

    IRSD: Includes a score for disadvantage, but also breaks it down by low income, low qualification and low skill occupations. Check this link for more info.

    As a property buyer, I want to see this as an overlay, or enrich the listing with the score for its meshblock, and maybe how that compares to the percentil for that LGA or postcode.
     
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  12. 30215

    30215 Well-Known Member

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    Neighbourhood watch is a very good deterrent
     
  13. Redwing

    Redwing Well-Known Member

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    upload_2021-1-7_21-7-49.png
     
  14. 30215

    30215 Well-Known Member

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  15. K168

    K168 Well-Known Member

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  16. minky123

    minky123 Well-Known Member

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    Personally, not always a reliable indicator. I see plenty of new euro cars driven by Asians in the outer western suburbs. Some wealthy people don't really place an emphasis on car prestige, whereas Asians tend to.
     
  17. AxeLy

    AxeLy Well-Known Member

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    I sense tinges of racism & groundless stereotyping here o_O
     
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  18. jaybean

    jaybean Well-Known Member

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    Maybe. I'm Asian, and I'll be the first to say A) it's probably true, and; B) it's utterly ********, I had a friend once that said they'd rather live in a crap house and drive a nice car than vice vercer. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, so I will express mine: that line of thinking is god damn ********.
     
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  19. minky123

    minky123 Well-Known Member

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    My apologies. I am asian too and anecdotally when I shop at Alfrieda st in St Albans, I see plenty of people with high end new Euro cars doing their weekly shop. Having a nice car does not determine wealth though. Some people place more emphasis on having a house in nice locations and good schools, and some just prefer nice cars instead of housing.
    I like to drive around at night and observe the train stations to check whether it is safe. Some people like to make a correlation with ABS data for household incomes to assess neighborhood safety (predominately PPOR occupied vs rentals).
     

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