3 California suburbs among the safest in the U.S., study finds

The quality of the schools, the commute, and the nearest brunch spot — are all factors you might consider before moving to a suburb. Another is safety.

The perceived safety of an area—which can be influenced by things like property crime and motor vehicle deaths—can also impact a home's value.

SmartAsset, a personal finance website, reviewed 360 suburbs across major metro areas in the U.S. and analyzed them based on multiple safety-related metrics: violent crime rates and property crime rates based on FBI data as well as rates of adults engaging in excessive drinking and deaths related to traffic accidents and drug poisonings from County Health Rankings.

To be considered a "suburb" for this report, a place needed to be within a 15- to 45-minute drive of one of the nation's 100 largest cities and have a population of at least 5,000.

According to SmartAsset's analysis, the safest suburbs were primarily in the Mountain West, Midwest, and East Coast, while many of th...