Madison Wisconsin Real Estate News

Madison was just ranked the most secure place to live in the United States among large metropolitan areas (500,000 residents or more), according to the seventh annual Farmers Insurance study. The Wisconsin state capital was ranked 3rd last year. This is the 5th time out of 7 years that Madison has placed in the top 20. The rankings were compiled by BestPlaces. Factors used to determine how secure any given metro area is included the following:

1. crime
2. extreme weather
3. risk of natural disaster
4. housing depreciation
5. foreclosures
6. terrorist threats
7. environmental hazards
8. air quality
9. life expectancy
10. job losses

According to the news release from Farmers Insurance, Madison moved up to No. 1 due to a low unemployment rate, low violent crime rate and long life expectancy of its residents.

The top 20 most secure large metropolitan areas in the U.S. among 114 studied were:

1. Madison
2. Des Moines, Iowa
3. Syracuse, N.Y.
4. Austin, Texas
5. Portland, Maine
6. Rochester, N.Y.
7. Honolulu
8. El Paso, Texas
9. Bethesda, Md.
10. Seattle
11. Pittsburgh
12. Minneapolis-St. Paul
13. Nassau-Suffolk Counties, N.Y.
14. McAllen, Texas
15. Bridgeport, Conn.
16. Raleigh, N.C.
17. Albany, N.Y.
18. Wichita, Kan.
19. Buffalo, N.Y.
20. New Haven, Conn

The most secure mid-size (150,000-500,000 residents) metropolitan area was Olympia, Wash. and the most secure small-size (less than 150,000 residents) metro area was Lewiston, Idaho.

Interested in moving to the safest city in the U.S.? Visit our Madison homes page or call (563) BUY-SOLD to get started.