“I check the camera all the time, and watch way too much recorded footage of the most mundane things now.”
Home ownership can be anxiety inducing.
What if the basement floods? What if the house burns down in a fire? What if the foundation shifts and destabilizes the whole house? These are just a few of the questions that routinely enter the mind of someone who purchased a home.
But one of the largest fear home owners have is home invasion. Robberies are unsettling, the feeling of a stranger rifling through your belongings can make it hard to feel safe. HomeAdvisor found that home invasion is the second most-common fear among home owners, behind storm damage. Despite the fact that home invasions are on the decline, the anxiety surrounding them are on the rise.
While home security systems have been available for decades, the newest technology, specifically HD doorbell cameras, have started to grow the industry again. Up until 2008, trend data suggests that standard home security installations were on the decline. But over the last five years, that trend has reversed, and the industry is growing, especially with the modernization of the technology.
We wanted to get a sense for whether or not these home security cameras helped alleviate concerns when it came to the fear of home invasion, so we ran a large survey of US self-reporting homeowners.
Methodology:
We surveyed 1,008 self-reporting US homeowners with doorbell security systems and asked them about their engagement with the technology and whether or not it makes them more or less anxious. Below are their responses:
Does having a doorbell camera make you feel more anxious, less anxious, or about the same?
| More Anxious | 40% |
| About The Same | 25% |
| Less Anxious | 31% |
| Not Sure | 4% |
Below are some quotes from respondents:
- “The alerts are irresistible. Anytime that happens, I have to check.”
- “I check the camera all the time, and watch way too much recorded footage of the most mundane things now.”
- “It’s been nice knowing that if anything bad happens [to my home], it will probably be caught on camera.”
- “I can’t stop checking my phone every time the alert goes off. Person walking by? Check. Mail delivery? Check. Bird landing on our porch? Check. It’s made me obsess over it. I feel like I always need to be watching now, not something I dealt with when it wasn’t an option.”
- “It’s nice to know I can see who is at the door, but then there’s the fear of any stranger that approaches the house when I’m not there might be up to something.”
Do you have a doorbell camera system? Let us know how it makes you feel in the comments below!