America's Safest Cities for New Homeowners in 2026

Key takeaways

• Port St. Lucie, Florida, ranks as the safest city overall for new homeowners, combining the lowest property crime rate (625 incidents per 100,000 residents) with the highest share of recent movers (34.3%).
• Oakland, California, ranks as the least safe city overall for new homeowners, combining the highest property crime rate (5,254.9 incidents per 100,000 residents) with the lowest share of homeowners under 35 (6.2%).
• 26% of new homebuyers haven't changed their locks since moving in.
• Nearly 1 in 10 new homeowners (9%) have experienced a security issue they believe could have been prevented if they'd changed their locks or codes sooner.
• The garage door, not the front door, is the bigger blind spot for new homeowners: 34% haven't reset the garage code, compared to 26% who haven't changed their locks.

New homeowners rarely think about who else still has a key. Former owners often walk away with copies of the front door key, the garage remote, and the code to the alarm panel, and it can be weeks or months before anyone changes them.

To see where that risk runs highest, and where new buyers already have the best odds, we ranked 93 U.S. cities using four metrics; property crime rate, the share of homeowners under 35, the share of recent movers, and security and fire alarm installer employment. Property crime rate captures the risk directly facing homeowners and their property, while the other three point to how accessible a market is to younger buyers, how much it's drawing new residents, and how developed its home security infrastructure is.

Vivint, the smart home security company, also surveyed 1,000 homeowners, including 581 who'd bought within the past five years, to see how quickly new buyers actually secure their home after moving in. Their answers show how the on-paper safety of a city compares with the real habits of the people living there.

Port St. Lucie ranks safest for new homeowners; Oakland ranks last

The city-level ranking weighed property crime, homeowner turnover, and other safety factors to find where new buyers face the least risk, and where they face the most.

Port St. Lucie, Florida, came out on top. The city posted the lowest property crime rate in the study, 625 incidents per 100,000 residents, and had the highest share of recent movers among owner-occupied households, at 34.3%. Oakland, California, landed at the opposite end, with a property crime rate of 5,254.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, the highest in the study, while just 6.2% of its homeowners were under 35, the lowest share measured.

Colorado Springs, Colorado, stood out as the only city to rank in the top three for both young homeowners (14%) and recent movers (32.9%), suggesting steady appeal to buyers early in the homeownership process.

A closer look at what separates the safest cities from the rest

Beyond the top and bottom of the ranking, a few individual metrics stood out across the cities studied.

Oakland's property crime rate towered over the rest of the field, at more than eight times Port St. Lucie's rate. McKinney and Frisco, Texas, two Dallas-Fort Worth suburbs, ranked among the three safest cities for property crime, posting rates of 680 and 789.4 incidents per 100,000 residents.

Lubbock, Texas, had the largest share of homeowners under 35 of any city studied, at 16.2%, more than double the 6.2% share found in Oakland and San Francisco, California, the two lowest-ranked cities on that measure. Anaheim, Los Angeles, and Santa Ana, California, reported the lowest share of recent movers among owner-occupied households, at 18.9% each, more than 15 percentage points below Port St. Lucie's 34.3%.

Florida also led every other state in security and fire alarm installer employment, at 0.84 workers per 1,000 jobs, more than three times the rate in Wisconsin, the lowest-ranked state at 0.26.

Home security habits of recent buyers

A safe city doesn't guarantee a secure home. The survey asked new buyers which security steps they tackled right away, and which ones they let slide.

Most new homeowners moved quickly on some fronts. Testing smoke and carbon monoxide detectors and introducing themselves to neighbors tied as the most common first-month actions, at 57% each. Locks and garage codes told a different story. The garage door turned out to be the bigger blind spot. Thirty-four percent of new buyers still hadn't reset the code, compared with 26% who hadn't changed their locks.

Half of recent buyers said no one, not their agent, inspector, or the seller, ever reminded them to change their locks or codes. Nearly one-tenth of homeowners (9%) said they'd experienced a security issue they believe could have been prevented had they acted sooner.

When asked what gave them the most peace of mind, new homeowners pointed to security cameras (47%), new locks (44%), and video doorbells (42%), followed by alarm systems, outdoor lighting, and meeting neighbors (27% each), then smart locks (21%). On average, new homeowners spent $300 securing their new home.

Where you live is only part of the safety equation

A safe ZIP code helps, but it doesn't do the whole job. The most secure cities in this ranking still have residents who haven't reset a garage code or swapped out an old set of keys. The reverse holds too. Even in higher-crime areas, a few quick steps can close much of the gap. Buyers who treat move-in week as a security checklist as well as a moving checklist put themselves in a stronger position than the address alone can guarantee.

Methodology

For the city ranking, we analyzed 2025 property crime data for 93 U.S. cities with available reporting, drawn from monthly police department submissions covering burglary, larceny, motor vehicle theft, and property crime overall. Annual property crime rates were calculated by summing each city's 12 monthly rates per 100,000 residents.

Homeowner age and length of residency came from U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data at the metro level, since city-level figures weren't available for every market; a handful of suburb cities, including Frisco, Plano, and Irving, Texas, and Gilbert and Scottsdale, Arizona, were mapped to their parent metro area. Security and fire alarm installer employment was measured at the state level using Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

Each of the four metrics was normalized to a 0-100 scale, with property crime rate inverted so a lower crime rate scored higher. The four scores were combined into a composite, weighted 40% property crime rate, 25% share of homeowners under 35, 25% share of recent movers, and 10% security and alarm installer employment, then ranked to produce the final list.

Property crime rate served as the core safety measure since burglary, larceny, and motor vehicle theft directly affect homeowners and their property; the share of homeowners under 35 reflects how accessible a market is to first-time buyers; the share of recent movers reflects a market's current draw for people relocating; and security and fire alarm installer employment indicates how developed the local security infrastructure is.

For the survey, we polled 1,000 U.S. homeowners, including 581 who purchased their home within the past five years ("new homeowners"), whose responses are reflected throughout this report. Reported security spending reflects an IQR-trimmed average: outliers beyond 1.5× the interquartile range were excluded before calculating the mean to reduce distortion from a small number of very high responses.

Fair use statement

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