Saturday Stats: SAP Center Infographic

Check out the infographic below courtesy of Realtor.com that compares the SAP Center in San Jose to the average house in America.

Saturday Stats: #1 Apartment Boom Town

SpareFoot ranked the top apartment boom towns in the US, and San Jose took the pole position on the list with San Francisco coming in 8th. The analysis looked at the total apartments per person, population growth, the percentage of people spending more than 35% of their income on rent (lower numbers are better), per-capita personal income growth, per-capita GDP growth, and growth in per-capita construction permits for new apartments. The article is an interesting read (especially on how Detroit made the list) and you can access it here.

The Way to San Jose
Here is SpareFoot’s ranking of America’s Top 15 Apartment Boom Towns, in descending order.

1. San Jose, CA
2. Austin, TX
3. Houston, TX
4. Grand Rapids, MI
5. Nashville, TN
6. Dayton, OH
7. Portland, OR
8. San Francisco, CA
9. Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
10. Oklahoma City, OK
11. Seattle, WA
12. Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN
13. San Antonio, TX
14. Des Moines, IA
15. Detroit, MI

San Jose’s continued job growth, along with its shortage of affordable entry-level homes, encourages younger workers to look for apartments, said Matthew Mahood, president and CEO of the San Jose Silicon Valley Chamber of Commerce.

“The apartment housing market has responded to this increased demand and has built and will continue to build new projects. In fact, there are two high-rise projects being built simultaneously in downtown San Jose that will provide for nearly 700 for-rent units in the next two years,” Mahood said.

Source: The SpareFoot Blog

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #9 Best City for Female Entrepreneurs

Nerdwallet has crunched some data on female entrepreneurship and San Jose came in 9th place. They looked at the number of businesses per 100 residents, percentage of women-owned businesses, unemployment rate, education, and median earning for female full-time workers. I'm a bit surprised that we did not rank higher on the list and that the median income for women is so much lower than the Silicon Valley median. It is always nice to get into these national rankings, but this is something San Jose could improve upon.

Source: Nerdwallet

Saturday Stats: America's Super Cities (Best-Performing Metros 2014)

SpareFoot put together an infographic showing a list of US cities to watch in 2014. They relied on data from the Milken Institute as well as several media outlets. San Jose made the list! They even posted a great quote from Business Insider: "With a powerful ecosystem of startups established companies, universities, investors, and a deep talent pool, San Jose remains the most impressive tech neighborhood in the world."

Check out the full infographic over here.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro Ranked as #2 Top Performing Rental Market in the Country

We all know how expensive it already is to live in Silicon Valley today, but it looks like rents are continuing to climb. In 2013, the national average for apartment rent rose 5.1% to $1,093 per month. The list of metros across the country where rents appreciated the most was entirely dominated by the Bay Area. In fact, the region took the top 3 spots in the list, with San Jose coming in second:

• Santa Rosa Metro: 12.2% growth (average rent of $1,438)
• San Jose Metro: 10.1% growth (average rent of $2,153)
• San Francisco Metro: 9.8% growth (average rent of $2,044)

With the local economy and job market continuing to heat up and the demand for housing outpacing supply, we may see similar rent increases for 2014.

Source: SVBJ

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks #4 for Political Giving

The political campaign season has already begun despite there being over nine months left before the 2014 midterm elections. Nerdwallet has taken the campaign contribution data from the Center for Responsive Politics and ranked the 50 largest US metropolitan areas in terms of political contributions. San Jose came in at #4. I have to say that I am a little bit surprised to see San Jose rank so high on the list, but am not surprised to see that 75% of party-specific contributions went towards the Democratic Party. Check out the full article and more analytics at the source link below.

Source: Nerdwallet

Saturday Stats: Car Ownership Highest in San Jose

This week's stat is kind of a two-parter. The Wall Street Journal posted an article stating that a larger share of US households do not own a car than in 2007. This is entirely true, but the change in American car ownership over those five years amounted to a measly half of a percentage point (0.5%). Some cities like San Diego, Austin, Ft. Worth, and Denver actually saw car ownership rise. San Jose takes the cake for the highest percentage of car ownership, with 94.2% of households owning a car. Over those five years, households with cars dropped in San Jose by 0.4%, close to the drop for the US Average.

Now part two is an article that bothers me by The Atlantic. They took the same data the Wall Street Journal used and asked the question, "why do the smartest cities have the smallest share of cars?" Let me remind everyone that San Jose was named the Smartest City in America by the TODAY Show a couple weeks ago, and we were at the very bottom of the data set for car ownership (lower means more households with cars in this case) along with cities like Austin and San Diego. Not only do I find this argument very weak, but the writer of this article completely corrupted his points by conveniently removing San Jose from his data set for "Cars and College" showing the correlation between education and car ownership (arguing that people with more education are less likely to own car). Check out the articles and lets us know what you think.

Sources: WSJ, The Atlantic, Hat tip to Tim Reed!

Saturday Stats: Santa Clara County has the 5th Largest Homeless Population in the US

Homelessness is one of the key issues our area is facing more and more each day. A federal survey has come out saying homelessness has declined overall, but Santa Clara County has the 5th largest homeless population in the US. This is not adjusted on a per capita basis (like the map below), but raw numbers.

Homeless Populations

• New York City: 64,060
• Los Angeles city and county: 53,798
• Seattle/King County: 9,106
• San Diego city and county: 8,879
• San Jose/Santa Clara County: 7,631

I am a little bit skeptical about the data given SF is not on the top 5, but Santa Clara County does have more than double the population of SF County. On a per capita basis I would expect Santa Clara County to be lower on the list.

The real bad news is that they are not mostly transients that are flocking to the South Bay for awesome weather and a liberal environment. 85% of the homeless here had their last permanent residency within the county. This isn't something that we can easily sweep under the rug, most of these people were former neighbors at one point.

Source: Anonymous Poster, The Merc

Saturday Stats: San Jose Metro is the #1 Area to Flip a House

Flipping a house involves buying a property, renovating it, and reselling it. It is a key measure of housing market activity. According to 24/7 Wall St., San Jose is killing it when it comes to flipping homes. In fact, they ranked the region as the #1 place in the county to flip a home. The average gross profit flippers nabbed in San Jose is $166,287. The average selling price of the renovated homes came in at $704,762... which is the highest among all areas in the study. Check out the full list of cities (metros actually) below.

TOP 10 BEST CITIES TO FLIP A HOUSE

1.) San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA
2.) San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, CA
3.) Oxnard-Thousand Oaks-Ventura, CA
4.) Ocean City, NJ
5.) Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, CA
6.) San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos, CA
7.) Santa Rosa-Petaluma, CA
8.) Salinas, CA
9.) Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA
10.) Vallejo-Fairfield, CA

Source: 24/7 Wall St., Hat-tip to Barclay Livker

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the #1 Richest City in America

You will have to hit the source link for the video, but San Jose was named the Richest City in America. There were some shots of Downtown both at the beginning and the end of the video. What do they attribute San Jose's success to? Tech, tech, and more tech.

The #2 wealthiest city was Washington, D.C., followed by Bridgeport, CT in 3rd. San Francisco came in 4th while Boston rounded out the top 5.

Source: Wall Street Journal, Bobby Guz Man from the San Jose Development Forum

Saturday Stats: San Jose Named One of 10 Cities That Could Run out of Water

Not all the Saturday Stats are positive. The Weather Channel highlighted 10 US cities that could run out of water, and calls San Jose "one of the most water-stressed areas anywhere in the U.S." We are at high risk of water shortages, especially on top of multi-year droughts like we had between 205 and 2007. Other cities that made the list include El Paso, Miami, Lincoln (Nebraska), Salt Lake City, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Antonio, Las Vegas, and Atlanta.

Sources: The Weather Channel, Hat tip to Bel

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the Healthiest Housing Market in the US

According to Zillow, San Jose has the healthiest housing market in the country. Right behind us is San Francisco, followed by Los Angeles in 3rd place and San Diego in 4th. Sacramento came in 10th place, meaning five of the top 10 housing markets are currently in California.

This should help reduce the number of homeowners that are underwater with their mortgage and overall foreclosures, but continued housing appreciation will also make it more difficult for people to afford to live here.

Source: NBC News, Hat tip to Barclay Livker

Saturday Stats: 2013 META-Edition!

Every time I post a Saturday Stat, I also toss it in a Google Doc so we can look back on the year and see all of our top rankings listed in a single place. Since it is the last Saturday of 2013, the time to reflect is now.

The list is even longer than 2012. San Jose's achievements this year include #1 lowest housing vacancy, #1 in patent creation, #1 top job market, #1 happiest city for young professionals, #1 technical jobs per capita, #1 best city for STEM jobs, #1 best city to work in, #1 safest city above 500,000 residents, #1 richest city in America, and #1 happiest, healthiest city in the US. Pretty impressive, wouldn't you say?

Below you can find the full list of 2013 Saturday Stats, and if you want to check out 2012 the Google Doc is over here.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Ranks #4 Best Performing City in the US

Last year San Jose was Ranked as the #1 best performing city in the US by the Milken Institute. This primarily looks at growth of jobs, wages, and GDP (Gross Domestic Product, a good measure of what companies are actually producing and selling). For 2013, San Jose came in 4th place. Austin took #1, Provo was #2, and San Francisco was #3.

Just for fun I did a direct comparison on the stats between San Jose and San Francisco. 5-year and 1-year job growth was stronger in San Francisco, but 5-year and 1-year wages/salary growth was stronger in San Jose. High-tech GDP growth was slightly stronger in SF but San Jose took the cake in the entire study for total High-Tech GDP (it is double San Francisco's current Tech GDP).

Source: SVBJ, Best-Performing Cities

Saturday Stats: Homes Selling Fastest in San Jose

Home listings in San Jose have been on fire lately. 49% of October listings were in contract within two weeks (essentially the homes are sold barring any unforeseen circumstances). This compares to 41% in San Francisco. The average for all the metros that Redfin tracks is 28%.

Source: SocketSite

Saturday Stats: Santa Clara County Leading Bay Area Commercial Boom

There are a lot of cranes in the air and buzz about the office market in San Francisco, but the reality is that Santa Clara County is leading the Bay Area in commercial real estate construction with $2.1 billion worth of activity. While this beats San Francisco by 10%, keep in mind it is much cheaper to build offices in the South Bay than up North, so the variance by square footage is likely much greater. Also the $1.3 billion 49ers stadium is not factored into this figure. We'll also see how things go in 2014 and 2015 when developers start hitting the hard cap the city of San Francisco has set on new office construction.

In total, the entire Bay Area will top the $6 billion new commercial construction record set way back in the year 2000. It seems things are recovering nicely in our local economy.

2013 Commercial Construction Activity

Santa Clara County: $2.1 billion
San Francisco County: $1.9 billion
San Mateo County: $765 million
Alameda + Contra Costa Counties: $681 million

Source: SocketSite

Samsung's New US Headquarters in San Jose

Saturday Stats: San Jose is the 3rd Best City for Home Sellers

Movoto looked at total homes for sale per capita, median days on market, crime rates, school quality, and unemployment rate to find the best home markets for sellers across 100 US Cities. San Jose came in 3rd place, while our nemesis came in second and Fremont surprisingly came in 1st. For more info just use the source links or scroll down.

Source: SocketSite, Movoto Blog

1. Fremont, CA

Source: Flickr user Don Debold

This modestly sized city of 216,916 located on the eastern side of the San Francisco Bay is home to the highest-earning home buyers in our top 10; they made a median household income of $98,513 a year. At the same time, sellers can anticipate a median listing price of $640,000, which is the third highest of all the cities we surveyed after San Francisco and Irvine.

Fremont is tied with Oakland, CA when it comes to fewest median days on market at 25 days. The city has the second-highest ratio of homes for sale to residents after San Francisco at one for every 689 residents.

2. San Francisco, CA

Source: Wikipedia user Kurykh

To the northwest of Fremont sits San Francisco, the City by the Bay. This hilly metropolis has the highest median list price of any city in our top 100—let alone the top 10—at $799,000. Its residents earn a median household income of $72,947 and the unemployment rate is 5.4 percent.

The median days on market in San Francisco is twice that of Fremont at 50 days. There is one home for sale for every 869 people who call the city home, making it the most competitive housing market out of our top 10.

3. San Jose, CA

Source: Wikipedia user Michael

One of the Bay Area’s three major metros, San Jose came in fourth in terms of median listing price and days on market at $609,000 and 43 days, respectively. Its residents make a median household income of $80,764 and the unemployment rate is 7.2 percent; the second-highest in the top 10 after Chula Vista.

San Jose is fourth out of the top 10 in terms of available home to resident ratio with one for sale for every 608 people.

4. Honolulu, HI

Source: Wikipedia user ErgoSum88

The Hawaiian capital came in fourth overall in terms of unemployment at 4.2 percent, just slightly more than Seattle’s 4 percent rate. Its median list price is seventh overall at $528,000 and the residents earn a median household image of $93,539 annually.

Honolulu has one home for sale for every 292 residents and a median days on market of 64 days.

5. San Diego, CA

Source: Flickr user Leandro Neumann Ciuffo

San Diego is the largest city in our top 10 at 1.3 million residents, which contributes to its low ratio of 1 home for sale for every 348 people. The median list price in San Diego is $469,000 which makes it ninth overall for that criterion.

Unemployment in San Diego is at 7 percent, placing it 45th out of 100 in terms of the cities we surveyed.

6. Plano, TX

Source: City of Plano, TX

As it turns out, one of our best suburbs in America is also a top spot for home sellers. Plano has one home for sale for every 289 residents and a median days on market of 60. The median listing price there is 275,000—a far cry from California prices, but good for Texas.

The residents of Plano make a median household income of $82,901 annually, placing it 27th for that criterion, and the unemployment rate is 6.4 percent.

7. Chula Vista, CA

Source: Flickr user Mark Sebastian

We head back to California and the San Diego area for seventh place Chula Vista. The median list price there is about $100,000 less than in San Diego proper at $370,000 and at one home on the market for every 378 residents, they’re just about even in that regard. Median days on market is 52, which is just one day longer than San Diego.

The unemployment rate is higher at 7.8 percent but the median household income is considerably lower at $65,526.

8. Seattle, WA

Source: Wikipedia user Daniel Schwen

Still on the West Coast, but considerably less sunny, Seattle immediately stands out by having the lowest unemployment rate of any city we surveyed at 4 percent. The median household income there, however, is the lowest in our top 10 at $61,856.

As for the rest of the criteria, it performed admirably. Its median list price is $425,000 and days on market are 45. There’s one home for sale for every 227 residents of the city.

9. Chandler, AZ

Source: Flickr user Dean Ouellette

As the first of two Arizona cities that round out our top 10, Chandler is superior in terms of median list price—at $284,900, it’s $14,800 better than No. 10. It’s $71,343 median household income is less, however, and its one home for sale for every 198 residents makes it not quite as competitive a market.

The median days on market in Chandler is 50 and the unemployment rate is 6.9 percent.

10. Gilbert, AZ

Source: Wikipedia user Tony the Marine

Like we said, Chandler has Gilbert beat for median list price; $284,900 versus $270,100, respectively. Gilbert’s residents make more, though, at $80,090 median household income, and there are fewer homes for sale per resident—one for every 158.

In terms of median days on market and unemployment rate, Gilbert is tied with Chandler at 50 and 6.9 percent, respectively.

Saturday Stats: San Jose #5 in Economic Strength Index

San Jose is the only Californian city to rank in the top 10 local economies list for the whole United States. This study looked at 102 major metros and is based on 18 different components (full details below). Texas continues to dominate with Austin, Dallas, and Houston in the top 5, but it is nice to see San Jose representing on the list.

Source: SVBJ

SOURCES

All raw data come from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Federal Housing Finance Agency, and are the latest available figures as of the second Monday of the current month.

TYPES OF CALCULATIONS

The formula for the On Numbers Economic Index has 18 components. They fall into four general categories:

• Five-year changes are calculated between the latest available data and the corresponding data for the same month (or quarter) five years ago.

• One-year changes are calculated between the latest available data and the corresponding data for the same month (or quarter) one year ago.

• Long-term trends are calculated over five one-year intervals: between the same month (or quarter) five years ago and four years ago, between the same month four years ago and three years ago, between the same month three years ago and two years ago, between the same month two years ago and one year ago, and between the same month one year ago and now. Those five percentages are then combined into a single score.

• Current rates are the latest rates available.

FORMULA COMPONENTS

These are the 18 components of the formula:

1. Five-year change in private-sector employment.

2. One-year change in private-sector employment.

3. Long-term trend in private-sector employment.

4. Five-year change in unemployment rates.

5. Current unemployment rate.

6. Long-term trend in unemployment rates.

7. Five-year change in weekly earnings per private-sector worker.

8. One-year change in weekly earnings per private-sector worker.

9. Long-term trend in weekly earnings per private-sector worker.

10. Five-year change in construction-sector employment.

11. One-year change in construction-sector employment.

12. Long-term trend in construction-sector employment.

13. Five-year change in retail-sector employment.

14. One-year change in retail-sector employment.

15. Long-term trend in retail-sector employment.

16. Five-year change in house values. (House values are updated quarterly. All other factors are updated monthly.)

17. One-year change in house values.

18. Long-term trend in house values.

SCORING

Markets are ranked from top to bottom in all 18 components. The top market in each component receives 100 points; the bottom markets receives zero. Others are evenly distributed in between. Second place, for example, is worth 99.01 points, third place is worth 98.02, and so on.

FORMULA WEIGHTING

These components count for 10 percent each of a market's final score: 2, 5, 8 and 17. (All numbers come from the components section above.)

These components count for 5 percent each: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14, 16 and 18.

These components count for 2.5 percent each: 10, 12, 13 and 15.

Final scores are expressed on a 100-point scale.

SHORT-TERM AND LONG-TERM SCORES

Separate short-term and long-term scores are also calculated for each market. Both are expressed on a 100-point scale.

The short-term score reflects recent movement in the local economy, while the long-term score takes a five-year perspective.

Short-term scores are a composite of all one-year changes and current rates: 2, 5, 8, 11, 14 and 17.

Long-term scores are a composite of all five-year changes and long-term trends: 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 18.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Nabs #1 Riches City Title

Median household income for the nation as a whole remained relatively unchanged between 2011 and 2012 and is still down in many areas compared to 2008. However, San Jose managed to take the crown away from Washington DC as the US's "richest" region based on 24/7 Wall St.'s analysis of 366 metro areas. You can see the top 5 cities below!

Source: 24/7 Wall St., Hat tip to Barclay Livker and Dan De La O for sending this in

~~~

Top 5 Richest Cities

5. Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, Mass.-N.H.
> Median household income: $71,738
> Population: 4,640,802 (10th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 6.1% (68th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 10.7% (24th lowest)

Compared with other metropolitan areas, the percentage of households earning over $200,000 in the Boston area is among the highest in the nation, at nearly 13%. One reason for this may be residents’ high levels of educational attainment. Last year, nearly 43% of adults over 25 had a college degree, well in excess of the national rate of 29.1%. Also, relatively high percentages of the workforce are involved in high-paying industries like financial services, as well as scientific and professional work — 8.4% and 14.0%, respectively. As of 2012, the Boston area had an unemployment rate of just 6.1%, two percentage points better than the 8.1% national rate, while job growth has picked up in recent years. Further, over 95% of residents have health insurance, one of the highest rates in the nation.

4. San Francisco-Oakland-Fremont, Calif.> Median household income: $74,922
> Population: 4,455,560 (11th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 8.1% (148th highest)
> Poverty rate: 11.9% (51st lowest)

Last year, the San Francisco area had one of the highest percentages proportions of working residents employed in high-paying professional services fields, at nearly 18%. The area’s highly skilled workforce likely contributed to its exceptionally high median income, which was close to $75,000 last year. Alongside high incomes, however, the area has some of the nation’s steepest housing costs, with median gross rent at nearly $1,400 per month. According to Trulia, no housing market is less affordable than San Francisco, where the middle class could afford to buy just 14% of available homes in October. The cost of living in the city of San Francisco is so high that many would-be residents have elected to move to neighboring Oakland — in turn pushing up housing costs in some neighborhoods there as well.

3. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, Conn.
> Median household income: $79,841
> Population: 933,835 (57th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 7.8% (tied-167th highest)
> Poverty rate: 8.9% (tied-8th lowest)

As of 2012, the Bridgeport metro area had one of the highest median incomes in the nation, at close to $80,000. Additionally, nearly 22% of the area’s households made over $200,000, the highest percentage in the nation. Contributing to the Bridgeport area’s wealth, the percentage of residents working in the high-paying finance and professional services sectors were among the highest in the nation last year. But the area also had the nation’s second-highest income inequality, as measured by its Gini index score. While crime and poverty have long been problems in Bridgeport, neighboring cities such as Greenwich are home to some of the nation’s wealthiest individuals.

2. Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, D.C.-Va.-Md.-W.Va.
> Median household income: $88,233
> Population: 5,804,333 (7th highest)
> Unemployment rate: 5.6% (46th lowest)
> Poverty rate: 8.4% (4th lowest)

Last year, 17% of households in the Washington, D.C., area had over $200,000 in income, higher than all but two other metro areas. Among the reasons for the area’s high income are a highly skilled workforce, with more than one in every five workers employed in high-paying professional services fields, more than anywhere else in the U.S. In May, The Wall Street Journal noted the area’s economy has expanded beyond government in recent years, and that past federal spending has contributed to the development of a skilled and well-connected professional workforce. Additionally, the Washington, D.C., area population is one of the nation’s most highly educated, with 48.2% of residents holding at least a bachelor’s degree, more than all but a handful of other metro areas.

1. San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, Calif.> Median household income: $90,737
> Population: 1,894,388 (32nd highest)
> Unemployment rate: 8.6% (112th highest)
> Poverty rate: 10.8% (28th lowest)

Median income in the San Jose metro area, which constitutes part of Silicon Valley, jumped from $85,736 in 2011 to $90,737 last year. San Jose had among the largest concentrations of high-paying professional services and information jobs in the nation. But the area is not only the wealthiest in the nation, it has also become one of the most-desired housing markets. Just 3.6% of housing units were vacant in 2012, down from 4.9% in 2008, while median gross rent reached $1,560 last year, more than any other metro area in the U.S. Home values also were the highest in the nation, with a median of $624,200. More than 20% of homes in the area were valued at over $1 million.

Saturday Stats: San Jose Still the Safest Big City

A new study to find the safest cities for "your wallet and well-being" was released last month by CreditDonkey. They specifically look at the number of violent crimes, total crimes, and ID theft for each 1,000 residents and the variance between the median. They only evaluated "big" cities with populations above 500,000. Guess which city topped the rankings? It was San Jose by a pretty strong margin.

New York came in 5th and San Francisco was nowhere to be seen on the list.

Source: CreditDonkey

Safest Big Cities for Your Wallet, Well-Being

1. San Jose, CA

SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA

• Violent crime % differential from median: -21%
• Total crime % differential from median: -23%
• ID Theft % differential from national average: -21%

San Jose earns the top spot because it’s the only large city in the country to fall more than 20 percent below the national benchmark in all three categories. It also holds the distinction of having the lowest incidence of violent crimes per 1,000 people among all cities with populations over 500,000 considered for these rankings.

What you may not know about San Jose: In response to budget, staff, and crime concerns of late, the city of San Jose launched the RCITI (pronounced “our city”) program in early 2013 to reaffirm the police department’s core priorities. Reducing gang-related crimes and being responsive to residents’ needs are among the program’s key goals. The city reports that gang-related crime fell 28 percent during the first three months of 2013 compared to the same period last year.

2. San Diego, CA

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA

• Violent crime % differential from median: -12%
• Total crime % differential from median: -32%
• ID Theft % differential from national average: -16%

San Diego actually has a lower incidence of crime as a whole than San Jose, but it ranks behind its in-state neighbor because it has higher violent crime occurrences. Still, the statistics for San Diego are impressive considering it’s one of only three cities in the top 10 to have a population greater than 1 million.

What you may not know about San Diego: The city has promoted the concept of neighbors watching neighbors by partnering with Nextdoor.com, a San Francisco-based social network for neighborhoods. Each community has its own website that only those residents can access. They can exchange information about what they’re seeing in their neighborhood, including safety issues.

3. El Paso, TX

EL PASO, TEXAS

• Violent crime % differential from median: -10%
• Total crime % differential from median: -32%
• ID Theft % differential from national average: -12%

The first three cities on this list are the only ones that fall below the national benchmark in all three categories, and El Paso is the last of that group. Its violent crime and total crime differentials are third and tied for fourth best, respectively, among all the cities we considered.

What you may not know about El Paso: El Paso is right on the Mexican border, and the police department has to be especially vigilant to try to prevent Mexico’s high occurrence of drug crime from seeping across it. Of particular concern are “stash houses” that act as temporary drug warehouses to facilitate widespread distribution.

4. Los Angeles, CA

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA

• Violent crime % differential from median: +3%
• Total crime % differential from median: -33%
• ID Theft % differential from national average: +21%

Fourth place goes to Los Angeles largely because it has the second best total crime differential while also having the second largest population. It’s the first city in the top 10 to have more violent crime occurrences per 1,000 people than the U.S. median, but at only +3%, it scores better than most U.S. cities including many of those on this list.

What you may not know about Los Angeles: Crime in Los Angeles has declined over the past decade, particularly the number of incidents involving gangs. The city has two programs that aim to keep youth out of trouble. The A.C.T. program (Abolish Chronic Truancy) looks to spot patterns of truancy as early as possible and coordinate the efforts of administrators, teachers, parents, and students to fix it. And the S.A.G.E program (Strategy Against Gang Environment) educates parents on recognizing signs of early involvement in gangs, improving neighborhoods, and diverting the attention of kids away from gangs.

5. New York, NY

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

• Violent crime % differential from median: +29%
• Total crime % differential from median: -48%
• ID Theft % differential from national average: +5%

By far the largest city in the top 10 with a population of over 8 million, New York ranks fifth because its relative total crime differential is the second most favorable among the metropolitan areas evaluated despite having a higher incidence of violent crime than all but one other city on this list (Tucson).

What you may not know about New York: Reducing crime has been a main priority of Mayor Michael Bloomberg since he took office more than a decade ago. A number of initiatives – some more controversial than others – have been launched during his tenure. Among the most recent is the Juvenile Robbery Prevention Program, which identifies at-risk youth and uses early intervention to dissuade them from committing additional crimes.