Ramblings of a Marketing Gurl: Comping a Neighborhood

Trulia has built in this neat Google Maps API using an overlay of reported crime data provided by SpotCrime.com and CrimeReports.com. Whether you are a renter or homeowner, this neat display allows you to see up-to-date crime stats in your neighborhood. And, if you're in the green, you are probably safer but as their map will show...it's all relative to the type of crime. Despite it's lack of sprawl or urbanization, all downtown areas tend to have higher crime rates than its outlying neighborhoods or adjacent cities. Vancouver is, by no means, a young city, having been incorporated in the mid 1800s.

In the Northwest, people get reported missing all the time. This is because it is easy to get into the sticks if you live in a neighborhood that borders a green way. Most of those who do go missing are endangered youths or the elderly with dementia related illnesses. You can probably toss those crime data points out when doing neighborhood comparisons (e.g., comping a neighborhood).

Here is a snapshot of the crime heat map of Vancouver, WA.

Trulia.com - Crime Heat Map of Portland Metro Area, Vancouver WA

Serena Y. Hsi, MBA

Welcome to my ramblings about marketing techniques, insights, business models, and perspectives on what companies do to bring products and services to market. My marketing work encompasses corporate and agency marketing handling many aspects within the marketing discipline: competitive intelligence, market strategy, market research, consulting, customer segmentation, database marketing, and identifying better customer acquisition methods and cross-sell opportunities.

The strength of a company's product or services should be as strong as its business strategy and marketing insight into its own industry. My passions are marketing and technology, which just happens to also be my career path.

Comping a Neighborhood - Crime Risk