One in five homeowners report being unable to fully relax on vacation due to concerns about their home, according to a new survey. The anxiety often begins shortly after departing, with nearly two-thirds of homeowners admitting they question whether they locked their doors or closed the garage within 30 minutes of leaving.
Thirty-nine percent of respondents indicated that their worries commence before they have even left their driveway. This persistent concern leads homeowners to check on their property an average of four times daily, either mentally or through remote monitoring systems, suggesting that these checks do not always alleviate their anxieties.
The primary sources of this worry revolve around the physical safety of family and pets, cited by 28% of respondents as their top home security concern. Break-ins or burglary are a close second, worrying a quarter of those surveyed.
The research, commissioned by SimpliSafe and conducted by Talker Research, also revealed that 18% of homeowners have experienced an attempted or successful break-in within the past year. This anxiety prompts many to physically return home to check on their property; 59% of those worried about unlocked doors or appliances left on have turned back to verify.
To manage these concerns, 63% of homeowners have installed some form of security system, with 73% opting to monitor these systems themselves. For those without a system, cost is a barrier, with 36% citing monitoring fees or hardware expenses, while 30% believe their neighborhood is safe enough not to require one.
Video doorbells are a popular component of home security, with 59% of homeowners having one installed. Thirty-two percent of these users rely most heavily on their video doorbell, and half believe it offers sufficient protection against break-ins. However, this confidence may be overstated, as 48% of homeowners who experienced a security incident while away only became aware of it upon their return.
"Video doorbells have changed how people keep an eye on their homes, but visibility isn’t the same as protection," stated Rebecca Zavin, chief product and technology officer at SimpliSafe. "When real trouble arises, whether it’s package theft or an intruder, most traditional video doorbells simply record the event and notify the homeowner, who may miss the alert or be unable to respond. A more proactive approach is to choose a video doorbell backed by professional monitoring, enabling trained agents to intervene through the camera in real time and request police dispatch if necessary."
Concerns also extend to the limitations of self-monitoring. Thirty-five percent of homeowners with video doorbells acknowledge that their device passively records rather than actively responds to events. Furthermore, 38% of those self-monitoring their security systems have missed critical alerts due to unavailability, and an additional 39% have missed alerts that were lost among other notifications.
When it comes to responding to real threats, a majority of homeowners (52%) prefer human intervention, while only 36% would trust an AI system to act autonomously. Professional monitoring provides the most peace of mind for 46% of homeowners, followed by self-monitored systems (37%), and AI-monitored systems (17%).
"AI can be incredibly valuable in security because it can detect and surface activity quickly. But when a potential threat becomes a real emergency, human judgment is irreplaceable," Zavin added. "The data from this survey reinforces what we hear from customers every day: people are open to AI playing an important role in identifying potential threats, but when something is actually happening at their home, they want a trained professional involved in making the call."
Research Methodology: Talker Research surveyed 2,000 U.S. respondents aged 18-75 who own a home and have internet access. The survey was commissioned by SimpliSafe and conducted online between August 17 and August 24, 2026.