Perils of global warming could swamp coastal real estate – ‘The water always wins’
By Ian Urbina
24 November 2016 MIAMI, Florida (The New York Times) – Real estate agents looking to sell coastal properties usually focus on one thing: how close the home is to the water’s edge. But buyers are increasingly asking instead how far back it is from the waterline. How many feet above sea level? Is it fortified against storm surges? Does it have emergency power and sump pumps? Rising sea levels are changing the way people think about waterfront real estate. Though demand remains strong and developers continue to build near the water in many coastal cities, homeowners across the nation are slowly growing wary of buying property in areas most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. A warming planet has already forced a number of industries — coal, oil, agriculture and utilities among them — to account for potential future costs of a changed climate. The real estate industry, particularly along the vulnerable coastlines, is slowly awakening to the need to factor in the risks of catastrophic damage from climate change, including that wrought by rising seas and storm-driven flooding. But many economists say that this reckoning needs to happen much faster and that home buyers urgently need to be better informed. Some analysts say the economic impact of a collapse in the waterfront property market could surpass that of the bursting dot-com and real estate bubbles of 2000 and 2008. The fallout would be felt by property owners, developers, real estate lenders and the financial institutions that bundle and resell mortgages. […] “I don’t see how this town is going to defeat the water,” said Brent Dixon, a resident of Miami Beach who plans to move north and away from the coast in anticipation of worsening king tides, the highest predicted tide of the year. “The water always wins.” [more]
Perils of Climate Change Could Swamp Coastal Real Estate
Humans are far too stupid to move when the water floods their homes. They will insist that this is an abberation, that God Himself will intervene, that by divine right they can live anywhere they damned well please.
The absence of thought, of critical awareness has now reached stupendous proportions on this Black Friday where masses of brain-dead morons herd themselves into box stores to buy the latest baubles for their families (on credit of course).
We need to go extinct. This should be totally obvious now to everyone.
It is a real problems for everyone living near coast. Even the current prices do reflect to this kind of disasters. I've been living for a while on an east coast of Baltic sea, in Europe. There is nothing like this hurricanes or similar problems, but there was some reflections about water level increasing. Although I've sold my apartment for a lower price, compared to current I've checked on local listings (nekilnojamas turtas klaipedoje – from all the country). It was due to a common market decrease.