By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

A national real estate blog cited low violent and property crime rates in naming a quartet of Shelby County cities among the safest in Alabama for the spring of 2015.

The Movoto real estate blog gave high marks to Helena, Pelham, Alabaster and Hoover – all of which finished in the top 10 in the blog’s listing of the 54 safest cities in the state.

Movoto used the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s 2013 uniform crime report, which includes crime information for all Alabama cities with populations of 10,000 or more.

The blog gathered data on murders, rapes, robberies, assaults, burglaries, thefts and vehicle thefts, and calculated each city’s per-capita crime rates in four categories: Murders, violent crimes, property crimes and total crimes.

Helena tied with Vestavia Hills for the honor of the safest city in Alabama on Movoto’s list. Helena was praised for having the fewest property crimes – and total crimes – per person in the state.

In 2013, Helena had just 187 total crimes and no murders, leading to Helena residents only having a one in 93 chance of being the victim of a crime, “which is by-far the lowest in the state,” read the blog.

Pelham was named the third-safest city in Alabama, with its residents having a one in 49 chance of being the victim of a crime.

Pelham recorded 457 total crimes in 2013, leading to the city having the fifth-lowest number of crimes per person.

Alabaster came in at No. 5 on the list, holding the same ranking it did last year. Alabaster residents have a one in 46 chance of being the victim of a crime, which tied for the seventh-lowest in the state despite a constantly growing population, according to the list.

Hoover, which is partially in Shelby County, ranked 10^th on the list, and its residents have a one in 32 chance of being the victim of a crime. Hoover reported two murders in 2013, but had the fourth-lowest number of violent crimes per person in the state.

To view the full list, visit Movoto.com/blog/top-ten/safest-places-in-alabama-2013.