Gone are the days where home security meant you owned a good sized baseball bat. Home security has made gigantic leaps in keeping families safe and updated and modern security systems are a huge selling point for homes, especially those in major urban centers. It is pretty amazing what these "smart homes' are now capable of. A few years ago this kind of technology was marginally accessible and what was available was staggeringly expensive. This has all changed rapidly and this kind of technology is now available to the average home buyers.
Likely the most prevalent technology has become the availability of web and security cameras.
Current technology allows these devices to be viewed from any PC or even your own cell phone anywhere in the world. And that is not the most impressive aspect. Homes that are built with this kind of technology from the ground up have numerous aspects that can be controlled via phone or PC from anywhere. These include things like the heat, lights and others. This not only allows you to monitor your home when you are away but it creates the illusion of occupation.
Another asset to systems like this is the fact that they are able to monitor for emergencies quite easily. Any occurrence can easily be dealt with and the appropriate authorities dispatched if necessary. Taking this monitoring one step further, a central computer can monitor the well being of all occupants of the home and can even tell the difference between a resident of the home and someone who is a visitor or intruder. Pretty nifty yes?