Homebuyers: These are the safest states to buy a house in

Safe at home in the North

Want to make sure you’re buying a home where natural disasters are unlikely and crime rates are low? According to a new list, you might want to look North.

The nation’s safest states

According to WalletHub’s newest Safest States in America list, Minnesota is the nation’s safety state to live in. The state claims the country’s safest roads, with the second-fewest fatalities per 100 million miles traveled.

It also ranks highly in personal/residential safety, workplace safety and financial safety. Its residents are some of the most likely to have an emergency rainy day fund in place.

Many homeowners (parents included) are unprepared for an emergency

Vermont took second on the list, with high rankings in all categories — including emergency preparedness. The state also has the second-fewest assaults per capita and one of the lowest shares of uninsured adults.

The remaining top 10 safe states are largely Northeastern ones, including Maine, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Massachusetts. Utah, Iowa, Hawaii and Wyoming also made the list.

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Unsafe in the South

At the bottom of WalletHub’s safest states list was Mississippi, which ranked dead-last in both road safety and emergency preparedness. The state has the second-most road fatalities, one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates and a low share of adults with rainy day funds.

Louisiana also ranked low on the list, with poor ratings in financial safety, emergency preparedness and personal/residential safety. The state has the fourth-most assaults per capita, the third-highest rate of bullying and one of the highest unemployment rates in the country.

Southern states largely dominate the bottom of the list, with Florida, Arkansas, Texas, Alabama, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Tennessee claiming spots. The only non-Southern states to make the bottom 10 were Missouri and Montana.

Get today’s mortgage rates

Interested in buying a home in one of the nation’s safest states? Then shop around and see what mortgage rates you qualify for today.