Tag: property

Hurricane Ian Exposing Real Estate Prone to Sea Level Rise Flooding

As Hurricane Ian churns toward Florida today, it’s sending rain bands into the southern half of the peninsula. Driving in South Florida where I live, I saw several streets and intersections near the Intracoastal Waterway that don’t normally flood during heavy rainstorms filled with a foot or more of water. Real estate was also being impacted. While the rain is certainly contributing to the flooding, the real culprit is king tides — extra high tides due to the alignment of the sun and moon — combined with sea level rise.

Unfortunately, the storm is striking at the height of a week of higher than normal tides that peaks on Thursday. If today is any indication, the flooding is going to not only flood roads, it’s going to flood yards and homes in the days to come.

Each neighborhood I visited was flooding because of saltwater topping seawalls, emerging out of storm grates, or because pump systems couldn’t keep up. Sadly, I also saw some residents awestruck that their neighborhoods were flooding, even though some of them have been flooding for years. My best guess is that they purchased the properties without being aware of the flooding risk.

Another point to ponder is that many people who bought a property that itself isn’t flooding are discovering that owning real estate that you can’t reach because of sea level rise flooding is a major management issue and a pain in the neck. It’s also disconcerting because unless the flooding is prevented — through the use of elevated seawalls, elevated roads or pumps — sea level rise will eventually cause the flooding to swamp yards and homes.

What I witnessed today in my town is certainly occurring in many other coastal communities this week. It’s a powerful reminder that owners in coastal communities need to start considering sea level rise in their plans, and buyers need to perform due diligence to make sure that their property of interest, streets and neighborhood aren’t currently flooding or likely to flood in the future hurricane or no hurricane.

Video: King Tide Sea Level Rise Flooding Season Kicks Off Along the US Coastline

Aaaaaaand, here we go again. King tide sea level rise flooding season kicked off this week in the historic Marina District in Delray Beach, Florida. Every fall, the sun and moon align in a way that creates extra high tides over and over again.

Coastal communities all over the US are experiencing similar sunny day flooding that’s only getting worse due to sea level rise. Cities and towns are spending billions of dollars to hold back the water, which will ultimately be proven futile unless we cut back on burning the fossil fuels that are causing global warming.

This round of flooding, which peaks on Thursday, is bound to worsen the storm surge from Hurricane Ian. I really feel for the people who have to live like this. The salty water is murder on vehicles and property. Stay tuned.

Want to Fend Off Sea Level Rise Flooding? Start with Your Natural Gas Stove

A study released last week that concluded natural gas cooking stoves in the U.S. alone are leaking the equivalent of 500,000 cars-worth of greenhouse gases every year is a powerful reminder that real estate owners must play a role in combatting global warming and sea level rise flooding.

Researchers at Stanford University said in the study, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, that natural gas cooking stoves in over “40 million U.S. residences release methane — a potent greenhouse gas — through post-meter leaks and incomplete combustion.” They noted that three-quarters of the methane was released when the stoves were off. Around 80 percent of the methane leaked from loose couplings and fittings that connect gas pipes to stoves.

For years, the natural gas industry worked to convince the public that natural gas was a clean energy alternative. Using natural gas to produce energy does in fact release half as much carbon dioxide as burning coal to generate the same amount of energy. But scientists are increasingly concerned that the production and transportation of natural gas is leading to the release of dangerous amounts of methane — a more potent but shorter lived greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide — into the atmosphere.

A report published by Global Energy Monitor, a non-profit that monitors the fossil fuel industry, concluded that projects the oil and gas industry plan to fund to increase the use of natural gas globally would lead to the release of greenhouse gases in excess of all the coal fired plant put together. Ultimately, natural gas could keep us on track toward climate change catastrophe.

So what’s a homeowner to do? Climate groups are encouraging them to replace their natural gas powered stoves, hot water heaters and other appliances with electric appliances. For those who can’t afford to replace them, Rob Jackson, a professor of earth sciences at Stanford who was one of the stove study authors, told National Public Radio said they should use a wrench to tighten the connectors between pipes and stoves. The American Gas Association told NPR this work should only be performed by licensed professionals.

The point of this story is that people who own real estate in coastal communities that’s threatened by sea level rise flooding should certainly do everything they can to, such as raising seawalls and structures, to protect their property from rising waters, which is a symptom of climate change and global warming. But they also need to do everything they can to reduce the root cause of the problem, which is clearly any human activity that leads to the burning of fossil fuels and the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

If they have a gas stove, they need to replace it or make sure it’s properly maintained. Other steps they can take to help include ensuring that their property is weather-proofed and equipped with the most efficient appliances available today. Even switching off lights and electronics that aren’t being used can make a difference.

Hundreds of Flood Survivors Demand that FEMA Do More to Protect Them from Climate Change-Driven Natural Catastrophes

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) asked for public input on changes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) last fall. Over 300 people hit by flooding are responding by signing a petition drafted by Anthropocene Alliance — a nonprofit group “fighting for climate and environmental justice”.

Anthropocene Alliance doesn’t mince words in the petition, which is addressed to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell. In the introduction, the group states clearly, “We are flood survivors, and we are angry.”

“We’ve witnessed death and destruction from Hurricanes Harvey, Florence, Laura, Sally, Sandy, Matthew, Irma, Delta, and Zeta, as well as from overland flooding in the Midwest,” the petition states.  “We’ve lived without electricity, running water, and secure shelter. We’ve heard our children cry from the absence of friends, school, and safety. And we’ve confronted homelessness, illness, and mind-numbing red tape from insurance companies and government agencies.”

The petition makes very specific demands of FEMA, including:

  • Stop allowing developers, disreputable planners, engineers and politicians to use the NFIP to encourage building in flood zones that puts the new properties and surrounding properties at risk of flooding.
  • Stop paying for the repair of property that floods repeatedly and, instead, “prioritize mitigation measures such as elevation, home buyouts, and community relocation.”
  • Start planning now to relocate whole towns and cities threatened by sea level rise flooding.
  • Improve the accuracy of FEMA flood maps that take climate change and sea level rise into account.
  • Require states to to pass uniform seller’s disclosure laws that clearly state a property’s flood risk in order for properties in the states to be eligible for coverage under the NFIP.
  • Set NFIP premiums that adequately reflect flood risk, and ensure it’s “affordable and accessible to low-income households until such time that the communities can be moved out of harm’s way.”
  • Make buyouts more desirable by covering the true cost residents of areas that flood will have to pay to move to areas free of flooding.
  • Protect or restore natural barriers to flooding, such floodplains, wetlands, forests, watersheds, salt marshes and beaches.

In the closing paragraph of the petition signed by Harriet Festing, Anthropocene Alliance’s executive director, the group encourages FEMA to open a dialogue with them.

“The flood survivors below all believe that for our children to have a safe and healthy planet, we need to quickly end fossil fuel use and transition to an economy focused on the satisfaction of real, human needs,” the petition states. “At the same time, provision must be made to protect individuals and communities from present and future harms due to more intense storms, rising sea levels, subsidence, bad development, and flooding.”

With so much at stake, buyers, sellers, owners and real estate agents in coastal areas need to band together with groups like Anthropocene Alliance to pressure the federal, state and local governments to do what’s right for all property owners in coastal areas susceptible to sea level rise flooding. Voting for candidates who not only recognize the challenges posed by climate change and sea level rise flooding but who are prepared to do something about them is also essential.

Sen. Manchin’s “No” on Build Back Better is Bad News for Sea Level Rise Real Estate

Just as a group of scientists is reporting that global warming threatens to cause the collapse of the so-called “doomsday glacier” in Antarctica — which could add a catastrophic two to 10 feet of sea level rise — the last thing owners of coastal property under threat of sea level rise flooding need to hear is that Senator Joe Manchin intends to vote no on President Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill.

Sen. Manchin, a Democrat, stated his intention over the weekend, which brought passage of the bill to a screeching halt. Without Sen. Manchin’s support, there’s little chance the bill, which faces overwhelming Republican opposition, will pass in the evenly divided Senate.

It’s no surprise that Sen. Manchin, sent to Washington, DC, by the coal state of West Virginia, is opposed the bill. It includes billions of dollars to develop clean energy resources. Unfortunately his short-sighted position will have long-term negative implications for the U.S.’s ability to reach President Biden’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by up to 52% by 2030.

The U.S. is Earth’s second worst emitter of greenhouse gases. Without a substantial reduction the burning of fossil fuels for electricity, transportation and industry, the world will continue to warm at an ever-accelerating pace and sea level rise will continue to follow the trend.

A foot of human-caused sea level rise is already forcing coastal communities to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to protect real estate, critical infrastructure and their local economies — an investment that’s sure to rise into the trillions of dollars nationally in the coming decades. The failure to also aggressively address the root cause of global warming and sea level rise through the Build Back Better bill is placing us firmly on the path to the worst case scenario of sea level rise flooding and other climate change catastrophes, such as droughts, raging wildfires and stronger, more damaging storms.

The bottom line here is owners of coastal real estate need to start voting for candidates dedicated to fighting climate change to protect their investment and their way of life.

Flood Factor, a Revolutionary New Service, Aims to Help Real Estate Buyers, Owners & Real Agents Evaluate a Specific Property’s Flood Risk

Wouldn’t it be cool if real estate buyers were able to tell if a property of interest was currently at risk of flooding — or, due to sea level rise, might flood in the years to come — with a few taps on their smartphone screen?

Of course! This type of app would level the playing field between buyers, who don’t know the current and future flooding risk, and sellers who do — or should. As we’ve discussed before in posts and videos, it isn’t always easy for a buyer to tell if a property floods or is at risk of flooding.

In some instances, sea level rise-related flooding occurs during the so-called “king tide” season in the fall, when the alignment and proximity of the sun and moon to earth create extra high tides. Buyers who visit a property during other times of year likely won’t see evidence of flooding.

Another challenge is that state seller disclosure laws range from Virginia’s wide-open “let the buyer beware” approach to Louisiana’s pretty stringent “tell them everything you know”-style law. Most states fall somewhere between the extremes, and buyers can easily fall through the cracks. The situation is so dire there are many documented cases where buyers didn’t know a property regularly flooded until the water showed up at their doors.

Further compounding the situation, is a privacy law passed in the 1970s that requires seller permission for the release of a property’s flood insurance claims history. Many buyers don’t bother to request the information.

So back to the app idea. I’ve sampled a few smartphone apps that are basically toys. They show you virtual reality-style what different levels of flooding would look like on a given property, but they don’t seem to rely much on actual data regarding a specific property’s elevation, flooding history, and other factors that would help buyers to weigh the real-world risk of flooding.

The best resource I’ve tried — not yet in app form but available on a webpage — is Flood Factor. The free service was developed by researchers at First Street Foundation, a non-profit research and technology group committed to defining America’s flood risk.

The Flood Factor interface is as easy as it gets. Users enter an address into a simple field and, if all goes well, they receive a detailed report regarding the flood risk for a given property. What really makes this a standout is the fact that the data is delivered in an easy-to-understand format. You get a clear understanding of the current flood risk on a 1-to-10 scale AND the risk for the next thirty years, which is the average lifespan of the most common mortgage. First Street’s researchers even figure sea level rise into their forecasts.

Coastal and inland buyers can benefit from Flood Factor, too. The researchers not only estimated coastal flooding risk, they also evaluated the risk of flooding due to strong storm surge, rivers overtopping their banks, and heavy rainfall events.

Flood Factor’s researchers combined many data sets to generate the detailed flood risk reports for specific properties. They say that their data is much more rigorous than that used by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which administers the National Flood Insurance Program. FEMA’s flood maps are notoriously outdated and inaccurate, so relying on them alone for real estate decisions is, in itself, risky.

The only problem I had with Flood Factor was that when I entered certain addresses located in areas known to flood in my town, the program said there was no data available. When I clicked on a link that said it would give me more information, I ended up back at the address input screen.

Despite this shortcoming — and I have no idea why it happened or the extent of the problem — Flood Factor is definitely a service that real estate buyers should use. It’s also of value to sellers, who might not know the full extent of the flood risk to their properties, and real estate agents, who need to know their farm areas to deliver top-notch service.

One final important note, despite Flood Factor’s comprehensive approach to flood forecasting, buyers shouldn’t rely solely on the reports when making real estate decisions. For example, if a property is at risk of flooding, buyers should find out what, if anything, is being done to mitigate the risk. An effective mitigation project — such as a sea wall — might reduce the risk for the period the buyer intends to enjoy the property. Buyers should also consider how flooding on the property of interest or in the greater community might impact their maintenance costs and tax and insurance rates. In short, taking the time to understand the big picture might prevent costly mistakes.

While not technically an app, Flood Factor can easily be accessed and used on a smartphone. Give it a spin.

When it Comes to Sea Level Rise Real Estate, Timing is (almost) Everything

When buyers are considering purchasing coastal properties in areas that are forecast to experience sea level rise flooding in years or decades to come, one of the questions they have to ask themselves is: “How long do I expect to enjoy the property?”

This question came to light bluntly when I had lunch today with friends who live on an island in San Francisco Bay. My friends, a husband and wife in their mid-60s, said they weren’t too concerned about sea level rise — though they know it’s coming — because it’s not predicted to actually flood their property for another 50 years. As the wife put it, “We’re pretty sure we’ll be dead by then.”

Actuarial tables say she’s probably right. As long as the current sea level rise forecasts hold, they probably will get to enjoy their property for the remainder of their lives.

Sea level rise vs. life expectancy is an important issue for buyers and owners in coastal areas to consider when they’re pondering their real estate options. Sea level rise forecasts are putting a potential expiration date on many communities along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coastlines. Knowing when rising seas will begin to inundate cities and towns is critically important for buyers and sellers. Other factors that have to be considered are how will sea level rise impact carrying costs, such as home maintenance, taxes, flood insurance and condo and homeowners’ association fees.

Combining sea level rise forecasts, your life expectancy, and your ability to afford the carrying costs as you age, is a good way for buyers and owners to tell if it makes sense to get involved or stay involved in real estate in a coastal community. When you’re talking about such fun areas to live in, this level of analysis can sound like a real downer, but not taking this dry-eyed look at the sea level rise situation could lead to an even greater downer: financial disaster.

This issue is discussed in greater detail in “7 Sea Level Rise Real Estate Questions.”

Owners of Real Estate Impacted by Sea Level Rise Flooding Have to Make Tough Decisions

Video: Owners of real estate impacted by sea level rise flooding have to decide “Should I stay or should I go?”

In the fourth Sea Level Rise Real Estate introductory video, we take a look at the challenges owners face when sea level rise flooding shows up in their communities or at their doors. The challenge for owners is to conduct a cost-benefit analysis that considers the extent of the flooding and what they and their local government can do to address it.

Owners also have to consider their ability to absorb higher costs for home maintenance, flood insurance, homeowners association and condo association fees, and taxes — revenue the government will need for resiliency or retreat. Every property owner has to decide for themselves — based primarily on their age, financial resources, and ability to manage property that floods or is at risk of flooding — how to proceed.

“Sea Level Rise Real Estate for Owners” gives owners a general picture of the issues they need to consider. “7 Sea Level Rise Real Estate Questions for Buyers, Sellers, Owners, and Real Estate Agents” goes more in-depth.

2019 Ends with Sea Level Rise Flooding on the Map

As a licensed real estate agent, experienced journalist, and avid reader of sea level rise-related media report and studies, there’s one major transition I’ve noticed in 2019: sea level rise flooding is shifting from a nebulous scientific fact to a has-to-be-addressed-now reality.

After decades of reading studies describing how sea level rise will one day impact our world, I’m seeing more and more reports from cities and towns all along the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf of Mexico coastlines that are now being forced to deal with actual sea level rise flooding that’s impacting real estate and critical infrastructure. (Search the term “sea level rise flooding” online, and you’ll see what I mean.) Of special note is the fact that the coverage is also shifting from storm surge events, where hurricanes, tropical storms and other extreme occurrences send floodwaters over land, to so-called seasonal king tides that due to an alignment of the sun and moon cause flooding even on the sunniest of days.

In South Florida, where I live, not too long ago king tide/sea level rise flooding was easy to hide. It occurred mainly in the fall and only seemed to affect a smattering of vulnerable neighborhoods. Now, the flooding is occurring with greater frequency, for longer periods, and with increasingly harmful effects. The now very obvious flooding is starting to set off alarm bells for public officials and private and commercial real estate owners as they come to realize that sea level rise flooding is going to get worse in the years to come.

To try to help buyers, sellers, owners and real estate agents to get a firm grip on the nature of the problems posed by sea level rise flooding, I wrote “7 Sea Level Rise Real Estate Questions” and released it this month in paperback and Kindle versions on Amazon.com.

The book explains what sea level rise flooding is, and the threats it poses to real estate buyers, sellers, owners, and agents, as well as communities and entire regions. For example, property owners who are experiencing actual sea level rise flooding can face increased home maintenance costs and the potential for their homes to lose value. These property owners and owners in areas that are experiencing flooding but whose property isn’t itself being inundated at this time are both at risk of ballooning flood insurance premiums and higher taxes, as governments try to rescue infrastructure by taking steps such as raising roads and water and sewer pipes, building higher sea walls and installing pumps. In addition, those who own property located in communities governed by homeowner’s associations and condo associations could also see a spike in dues and special assessments to fund remediation efforts.

The simple fact is sea level rise flooding will get worse in 2020. To protect their financial futures, buyers, sellers, owners and real estate agents in coastal areas need to get educated and stay informed about this challenge.

In the coming year, I will post the latest developments on SeaLevelRiseRealEstate.com and release an updated version of “7 Sea Level Rise Real Estate Questions” in December.

%d bloggers like this: