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Home > "Homes in Flood Zones Are Overvalued by Billions, Study Finds"

"Homes in Flood Zones Are Overvalued by Billions, Study Finds" [1]

"Failure to account for climate change means low-income homeowners could see their home values plunge".

"American homes in flood zones are overvalued by hundreds of billions of dollars, according to a study published on Thursday in the journal Nature Climate Change. Low-income homeowners in states controlled by Republicans are especially at risk of seeing their home values deflate as global warming accelerates.

Flooding is a costly and deadly natural hazard across the United States. For decades, the Federal Emergency Management Agency offered flood insurance at discounted rates, incentivizing developers to build houses in flood-prone areas. The agency’s flood maps are also notoriously outdated. That has led to a dangerous situation for homeowners as they grapple with year after year of debilitating floods.  

The study, published by a group of academic, nonprofit, and government organizations that include the Environmental Defense Fund and the Federal Reserve, revealed that homes in flood zones are overvalued by as much as $237 billion."

Zoya Teirstein reports for Grist February 16, 2023. [2]

Climate Change [3]
Consumer [4]
Disasters [5]
Economy & Business [6]
Water & Oceans [7]
National (U.S.) [8]
Public [9]
Source: Grist [2], 02/23/2023
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Source URL:https://www.sej.org/headlines/homes-flood-zones-are-overvalued-billions-study-finds

Links
[1] https://www.sej.org/headlines/homes-flood-zones-are-overvalued-billions-study-finds [2] https://grist.org/housing/homes-in-flood-zones-are-overvalued-by-billions-study-finds/ [3] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/climate-change [4] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/consumer [5] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/disaster [6] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/business [7] https://www.sej.org/category/topics-beat/water [8] https://www.sej.org/category/region/national [9] https://www.sej.org/taxonomy/term/81