ZIP 78705 covers West University Austin in Austin, close to downtown · Updated November 2026
Is ZIP 78705 in Austin safe?
Crime in ZIP 78705 is moderate, with an overall CrimeGrade™ of B-. Most US neighborhoods have little crime: 76% of Americans live in neighborhoods with less crime than ZIP 78705. Violent crime grades better than property crime here, A- against D+. Austin as a whole grades B. What matters most is the neighborhood: grades within ZIP 78705 run from A- to D-, so check the map below.
B-
Overall CrimeGrade™
Safety score 613 of 1,000Less safe than most US neighborhoodsi What this means
24% of Americans live in neighborhoods with more crime than ZIP 78705 as a whole, and 76% in neighborhoods with less. The typical US neighborhood has a safety score of 838, a CrimeGrade™ of A-. ZIP 78705 scores 613.
Crime is concentrated in a small share of places, so most neighborhoods score high on the 0 to 1,000 scale. That is why a score in the 800s can still mean more crime than most US neighborhoods.
How to read the map: each area's color compares its crime with the people, homes and cars there, on one national scale, from green for the least crime to red for the most. Each area gets its own color, so a busy shopping center can show red while the homes beside it stay green. The interactive maps load faster on a strong connection. Compare high speed internet in ZIP 78705, Austin, TX at ISP Reports.
Who this page is for: homeowners and renters in ZIP 78705 in Austin, and anyone thinking about buying or renting a home there.
Business and enterprise customers: this free map shows neighborhood areas. CrimeGrade™ business reports map crime at about 66-meter detail and estimate it for one address and type of business. See business reports
What stands out in ZIP 78705
One weak spot: reported rape. It grades C- in ZIP 78705, worse than in the neighborhoods where 95% of Americans live, against A- for violent crime as a whole.
Thefts and car thefts both run high. In ZIP 78705, each runs at about double the US rate: 28.1 thefts and 5.5 car thefts a year per 1,000 residents, against 13.1 and 2.7 nationally.
How ZIP 78705 compares within Austin
Areas graded C are home to 45% of residents in ZIP 78705; 43% live in areas graded A or B and 12% in areas graded D or F. Grades across ZIP 78705 run from A- to D-; every part of ZIP 78705 has more crime than the typical US neighborhood.
43%45%12%
A or B 43%C 45%D or F 12%
Share of residents, by the overall CrimeGrade™ of the area they live in.
ZIP 78705 has less crime than 16 of the 40 ZIP codes in Austin.
Is crime going up in Austin?
Since 2019, reported violent crime in Austin as a whole is up 10% and property crime is down 14%. Murders, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults went from about 4.2 to 4.6 a year per 1,000 residents (US: 3.7); burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts from about 38 to 32 (US: 18). Neither changed much from 2023 to 2024.
Violent crime, change since 2019
Property crime, change since 2019
AustinUnited States
Source: crime reports to the FBI from the police departments that serve Austin. The charts follow crimes per resident.
Data table
Year
Violent, Austin
Violent, US
Property, Austin
Property, US
2016
-1%
+4%
-5%
+15%
2017
+1%
+4%
-13%
+12%
2018
-8%
+0%
-7%
+4%
2019
+0%
+0%
+0%
+0%
2020
+19%
+4%
+1%
-8%
2021
+25%
+6%
-6%
-10%
2022
+29%
+5%
-5%
-6%
2023
+20%
+2%
-12%
-7%
2024
+10%
-4%
-14%
-15%
Crime rates and types in ZIP 78705
CrimeGrade™ estimates ZIP 78705 has about 59 reported crimes a year for every 1,000 residents, 59% more than the US as a whole and close to Austin as a whole.
Overall crime
Violent crime
Property crime
Reported crimes a year, per 1,000 residents. These figures include simple assaults and vandalism, which the FBI's violent and property crime rates leave out.
Theft is the most common crime in ZIP 78705, about 47% of everything reported, and it also accounts for the largest share of what crime costs here.
Each CrimeGrade™ compares a crime with what it affects: people for assaults and robbery, homes for burglary, parked cars for vehicle theft. Rates count crimes per 1,000 residents.
Select a crime's name to see its map above. CrimeGrade™ business reports map each crime at about 66-meter detail.
Where and when crime happens in Austin
The Austin Police Department polices ZIP 78705; these figures cover Austin as a whole, 2022 to 2024.
In Austin as a whole, 42% of burglaries hit homes, against 57% nationally. Thefts from cars happen most often in parking lots and garages: 40% of them, against 31% nationally.
Crime
Most often at
Busiest time
Burglary
Stores and businesses (43%)
Night (midnight to 6 am)
Car theft
Parking lots and garages (44%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Theft from cars
Parking lots and garages (40%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Vandalism
Homes (34%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Robbery
Stores and businesses (39%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Aggravated assault
Homes (49%)
Evening (6 pm to midnight)
Shares of the crimes reported to police, 2022 to 2024. Reports with no time recorded are left out of the times.
How ZIP 78705 compares with nearby ZIP codes
ZIP 78705 has less crime than 7 of its 10 nearest ZIP codes.
Counting police, courts and prisons as well as victims' losses, crime costs ZIP 78705 about $1,241 a year per household, about the same as the US figure of $1,205.
Cost of crime per resident, per year
Counting the pain and suffering of victims, which comes almost entirely from violent crime, the full cost comes to about $43 million a year, or $1,552 per resident.
How CrimeGrade™ works
A CrimeGrade™ shows how much crime an area has compared with the rest of the country, from A+ for the least crime to F for the most. Every neighborhood in the US is graded on the same scale, so a B in ZIP 78705 means the same as a B anywhere else.
CrimeGrade™ starts from the crimes people report to police and measures each kind of crime against what it affects: people for assaults, homes for burglaries, parked cars for car thefts.
The rates on this page count crimes for every 1,000 people who live here, the way police departments report them.
Comparisons with US neighborhoods use the Census Bureau's block groups, small areas of about 1,400 residents, and count the people who live in each. The figures count crimes reported to police; many crimes, shoplifting above all, never are. Behind the grades, CrimeGrade™ tested 21,607 factors from 125 data families. For business owners, paid CrimeGrade™ location reports estimate crime at a single address for each type of business.
Where the numbers come from
Crime reports that police departments file with the FBI
State crime records and city crime data, where they are published
These are estimates of reported crime for whole areas, not a record of what happened on any one street. CrimeGrade™ updates them once a year and provides them free and without guarantee. Check local sources before you rely on them for a decision.
Schools in ZIP 78705, Austin, TX average a SchoolGrade of A+: 68% of students test proficient, against 55% projected for schools like them. Overall, they meet expectations. See schools in ZIP 78705 on SchoolGrade
