Buying in Arapahoe County, Colorado

Arapahoe County at a glance

Arapahoe County is one of 64 counties and county-equivalents in Colorado. Its county seat is Littleton. County government publishes its offices and parcel tools online. Official county website. With a 2024 Census Bureau population estimate of 666,918, it is the third most populous county in Colorado. In the FBI's 2024 reported-crime file, agencies here reported 27,246 offenses — 40.85 per 1,000 residents; the breakdown is below.

Records to check before you buy in Arapahoe County

• Property record card — the Arapahoe County assessor / appraisal office. Pull the parcel's assessed-value history, exemption status, and last sale. This is the file your future tax bill is calculated from, and it shows whether the current owner is enjoying exemptions you will not inherit. County government sits in Littleton; the official county website is the reliable route to the parcel search and the office directory.
• Deeds & liens — the Arapahoe County recorder / land-records office. Read the deed chain, open liens, easements, and plat maps — the file a listing never mentions.
• Official flood determination. Check the exact parcel on FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer — not the listing site's licensed model. Zone boundaries cut through streets; the house next door can be in a different zone. Arapahoe County is the primary county for 17 ZIP codes in the Census Bureau's ZIP-to-county crosswalk — and zone lines ignore every one of them.
• The county's reported-crime record. In the FBI's 2024 file, agencies in Arapahoe County reported 27,246 offenses — 40.85 per 1,000 residents; the largest single category was larceny-theft (14,144). The crime section below sets that beside the Colorado county median.
• Registry check. Run the address through Colorado Sex Offender Registry (Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI)) and note the counts within a mile — then check again the week you close.
• Permits & code history — the Arapahoe building department. Open permits, expired permits, and code cases tell you whether the renovation in the photos was ever inspected. County permitting is run out of Littleton.
• School assignment — the district office, not the listing. Only the district's own boundary lookup confirms which school an address is actually zoned for.

County list, land area and population: U.S. Census Bureau (population: 2024 PEP estimate). County seat and official website: Wikidata (CC0), checked 2026-11-04. Flood determinations: FEMA. Registry: Colorado.

Reported crime in Arapahoe County — FBI 2024

Agencies in Arapahoe County reported 27,246 offenses to the FBI in 2024 — 4,899 violent and 22,347 property offenses. That works out to a reported-crime rate of 40.85 per 1,000 residents (violent 734.6, property 3350.8 per 100,000).

Inside Colorado, the median county in the same file recorded a violent-crime rate of 190 per 100,000 and a property-crime rate of 967 per 100,000 (medians computed from the FBI 2024 county file across 64 counties).

The largest reported categories were larceny-theft (14,144), motor vehicle theft (5,418) and aggravated assault (3,726).

Coverage: 11 of 11 law-enforcement agencies assigned to this county reported at least one month of 2024 offense data to the FBI; 11 reported all 12 months. Counts are reported offenses only (FBI Return A / Arson master files), assigned whole to each agency's primary county; they are not adjusted for non-reporting agencies.

These are offenses reported to law enforcement — not convictions, and not a verdict on any street or address. A CurbFacts report pairs this county record with the ZIP-level picture for the specific address you are buying.

Source: FBI Crime Data Explorer, UCR Return A + Arson master files, data year 2024 (pulled 2026-11-04).

The Colorado rules that apply in Arapahoe County

Traps researched for Colorado buyers: Split mineral estate and oil and gas activity; Methamphetamine-lab history must be disclosed in writing.

Read the full Colorado guide — disclosure standard, tax math, registry and flood

More Colorado counties

All Colorado counties · Colorado buyer guide