Neighbors
Before you move, or out of plain curiosity about the street you live on, the same public records answer two questions. Who lived in this house before me — that is a paper trail through the county: property records, census returns, city directories. What has actually happened in this neighborhood — that is official crime data: the FBI Crime Data Explorer for the jurisdiction, the local police incident map for the blocks, and the sex offender registry by radius. The guides here use official sources only and say plainly what the numbers can and cannot show.
How to find out who lived in your house before you
A step-by-step route from your address to its former residents — property records, census returns, city directories, and old phone books.
How to check a neighborhood's crime picture before you move
How to research neighborhood crime with official data — the FBI Crime Data Explorer, local crime maps, the sex offender registry, and the numbers' limits.