Trulia Insights and interactive crime infographics
Just 20 days ago, real estate search site Trulia.com launched Trulia Infographics, a site dedicated to the visualization of real estate data, a trend we spotted years ago and have been waiting with great anticipation the day when someone would step up to bat and make information rich and aesthetically pleasing real estate focused infographics. Companies typically master the information or the aesthetics, but rarely both.
Today, Trulia’s interactive infographic asks “Do bad guys ever sleep?” as they chart the top 25 cities’ crime rates. The information is staggering and proves that crime levels fluctuate wildly not only on the area you live in but at what time of day. What shocked us was that not only is crime substantially higher during the day (assuaging our fears of the night time noises) but that criminals apparently take lunch breaks. Either that or police officers file less reports around the lunch hour.
Click for the interactive infographic:
Crime reporting
Because Indianapolis’ chart is dramatically different as there are spikes every hour, we confirmed with Trulia that police reports are filed on the hour rather than the minute, so we encourage Indianapolis residents and Realtors to mentally chart the spikes rather than the dips to get a comparable idea of area crime. Police stations across the nation have different policies, notes Trulia but the averages suffice as an overview.
We like that each main type of crime can be charted separately to show consumers and Realtors what times are the most or least dangerous for each type of crime. This could be interesting for real estate professionals to share via blog as it is never a good idea to talk about crime directly with consumers, rather point them to their own research methods (so as not to get sued for saying “but you promised me this was a safe area” simply because you used a subjective term).
What is the biggest surprise in your city? Are there any crimes that are dramatically different in your city than in others? Tell us in the comments below!
Mary Schurr
July 6, 2011 at 10:52 am
I am a Realtor in Charlotte, NC. I viewed my own neighborhood a few weeks ago on Trulia and the streets with crimes listed in my neighborhood were NOT even in my neighborhood. I tried to email the address listed for their crime stats, but it was returned as an invalid email address. Someone out of state interested in my neighborhood would have no idea those streets are in completely different areas.
Ken Shuman
July 6, 2011 at 7:17 pm
Hi Mary,
Please send us your feedback to crimemaps@trulia.com This is a beta product and we are working to add new features and to make the experience better for everyone. If something is misrepresented, we want to make it right.
Thanks in advance,
Ken Shuman
Head of Communications
Trulia