[brianwawok]

How many normal houses in the US have an alarm system? I cannot think of a single friend of mine who has an alarm system. Some live in Chicago, some live "in the country".

I guess I remember a friend's parent that had an alarm system, which oddly was one of the few houses I know of that was broken in to. I think the burglar cut the alarm wire on entry and got a bunch of stuff.

[HeyLaughingBoy]

A surprising number of them do. I lived in a house that came with one because the previous owner was a woman who often worked very late and was nervous about coming home alone at midnight. I signed up for the monitoring because it was only about $25/month and homeowner's insurance gave discounts because of it.

[Kluny]

My uncle does, not by choice but because his house was robbed about ten years ago, and the insurance company refused to renew his policy unless he installed one.

[cafard]

We do, and many of our neighbors do. We are in a fairly quiet neighborhood of Washington, DC, but there are holdups now and then, auto thefts, and burglaries.

[AtmaScout]

Nearly everyone I know has one.