Did you consider climate change when you bought your house?

[sonrisa]

Did you consider natural disasters and/or climate change when you bought your house?

There is an adorable neighborhood in our area which is highly desirable. It's flat (rare around here), walkable to downtown, and on the water. I completely understand the draw to live there. However, it is also the part of town that gets the most damaged by earthquakes because it's on landfill and the houses are only a foot or two above the king tide high tide line. I'd rent there but never buy because it feels likely that the houses will start flooding or be damaged by an earthquake within the next 50 years. 

But those risks don't seem to affect demand at all - people happily pay 3 or 4 million dollars for houses that are around 2,000-2,500 sqft on small lots and prices have climbed steadily. Most of the purchases are by families with preschool age kids. These aren't old people who don't expect to be around in 40 years. I wonder if those families are just so wealthy that a few million dollar loss wouldn't ruin them or if they are counting on insurance or if climate change just wasn't a factor they cared about. 

(Obviously, we couldn't remotely afford that neighborhood but there are other, much cheaper tidal flood risk areas. We ruled out all of them because of climate risks. We are about 60 feet above sea level and I still get worried about climate change risks.)

[gretchenindisguise]

Not climate change per se, but weather events for sure. I don't want to be the lowest on the road so all the rain water comes to me.

I do think about it now though. We have homes built into the cliffs over the beach. I think they're insane and wouldn't ever want to own one. Our cliffs keep eroding and there are signs all over our beaches that the cliffs are unstable. I can't imagine them being there for a hugely long time. And drastically shorter should we have an earthquake.

[wambam]

We chose not to buy houses that could've had flooding issues. We liked the idea of a wooded lot because it's cooler and I prefer to be cooler always. But that was more of a comfort decision than an environmental one.

So, I guess not. That wasn't our top priority.

[sarahbear]

Never entered my mind and not a concern. I feel like significant climate change will happen over a period much greater than the one in which I will own my home or even be alive. But that's just my opinion on it in relation to my house.

[sonrisa]

Sept 3, 2016 11:31:24 GMT -5 gretchenindisguise said:

Not climate change per se, but weather events for sure. I don't want to be the lowest on the road so all the rain water comes to me.

I do think about it now though. We have homes built into the cliffs over the beach. I think they're insane and wouldn't ever want to own one. Our cliffs keep eroding and there are signs all over our beaches that the cliffs are unstable. I can't imagine them being there for a hugely long time. And drastically shorter should we have an earthquake.

For years, there was an empty portion of hillside in town that had a huge crater from a steep hillside cave in. About twenty years ago they built a new neighborhood up there. I wonder if the people buying there these days know that history  :?

I agree that rain run off patterns are also a big factor - we are at the base of a tiny mountain. Our house sits at a low risk spot because it isn't right against the hillside but also not lower down or along in the run off flow path. 

[phdprocrastinator]

Yup. This was definitely a concern. We wouldn't consider anywhere near the bay (sf bay area). The houses are beautiful, but even in areas we could afford, my husband nixed then of the list. His good friend bought in an old neighborhood near the bay and already had to deal with the basement flooding.

[sapphireblue]

We didn't look at any houses where it came up but yes, I still think about it.

My parents have a house on the water and I think about when I inherit it and the risks. They are set pretty far back but still. In the huge storm of 1993, the house next to theirs was pushed off its foundation and back several feet by the water. Also the entire granite sea wall was knocked down.

There was some really serious flooding in my area a few years ago and I did think about that when buying, but more in the way, oh good, this house we like is at the high end of the street where flooding would never be a concern. We didn't fall in love with any houses we had to rule out due to concerns, luckily.

[janegold]

We aren't ready to leave the city but we have given flooding some thought when casually looking at a few waterfront homes. I've also been thinking about it a lot as we've been traveling through N. Cal and the Bay Area this week - some of the hillside homes are so beautiful but I can't stop thinking about what would happen to them in the event of an earthquake.

[sonrisa]

Sept 3, 2016 11:38:15 GMT -5 HRH Queen Dick I, Orphan said:

If you are afraid of earthquakes you should not live here. . Lol.

The rallying cry of anyone who buys in the Marina ;-)

[onesweetworld]

Yes, not in a natural disaster way as we live in Toronto but we considered the size of the house e.g. heating/cooling a small home once gas/electric prices go up even more, being downtown so we wouldn't need a car, stuff like that.  |we also considered location re: flooding as the city has an issue with that. We are on top of a hill so less likely to have problems.

[turkletsmom]

Yes- but I've always lived in the suburbs of NOLA which is unique in that one street may commonly flood, but one street over might not. The number one question everyone asks when buying or hearing someone bought a house is- Do they "get water"? It's a strange place to live lol.

[Waffles]

There isn't much extreme weather here but I would absolutely factor that in.

The highest risk is floods and there are areas I would just not have bought in. As it is we are uphill from newly built storm basins so I'm glad we're on that part of the slope.

[fields]

Yes. But more for flooding - where we live Sonrisa, earthquakes are a way of life whether you are on top of the fault or 5 miles from it, right?

I actually just bought earthquake insurance - I had put it off based on cost but we just finished some very expensive remodeling projects and the economics made since even if we don't get flattened by an earthquake in the next 20 years (how long we plan to stay in this house)

[fields]

Sept 3, 2016 11:47:55 GMT -5 HRH Queen Dick I, Orphan said:

Sept 3, 2016 11:45:43 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

The rallying cry of anyone who buys in the Marina ;-)

We just bought the dump we could afford but fortuitously this house sits on bedrock. Come at me earthquake.

Stop it! This is like beetle juicing an earthquake!

[readyin07]

I live in Florida so...

Honestly I am 37. I sincerely doubt I will be around in 40 or 50 years so it doesn't really impact my thinking.

[fields]

Sept 3, 2016 11:38:41 GMT -5 janegold said:

We aren't ready to leave the city but we have given flooding some thought when casually looking at a few waterfront homes. I've also been thinking about it a lot as we've been traveling through N. Cal and the Bay Area this week - some of the hillside homes are so beautiful but I can't stop thinking about what would happen to them in the event of an earthquake.

They will slide down the hill is exactly what will (and has) happened. I admire the guts those home owners have.

[hisno1girl]

Sept 3, 2016 11:38:15 GMT -5 HRH Queen Dick I, Orphan said:

If you are afraid of earthquakes you should not live here. . Lol.

There was an earthquake that was felt in Michigan. I completely freaked out.

The one time I was in CA there was an earthquake that woke us up. I peed my pants a little.

[Waffles]

H actually keeps saying we'll need to get ourselves over to Scotland if we see more serious issues emerging as it's too flat here and the whole country will end up swallowed up. I should not let him watch disaster movies anymore.

[TR]

Sept 3, 2016 12:00:10 GMT -5 readyin07 said:

I live in Florida so...

Honestly I am 37. I sincerely doubt I will be around in 40 or 50 years so it doesn't really impact my thinking.

Not the point, but you don't think you'll live to 77-87? You sound like my mom, lol. She's 57 and super dramatic about "I probably won't even be around in 10 years." Eyeball, Mother.

[IndiaInk]

We are looking for acreage and climate change is absolutely a factor. I know of some properties I would love to buy if they came up for sale, but I also know their flood history and have seen flooding increase in severity and depth on those properties in the last few years specifically due to earlier than usual warming and snow melt. DH and I were just having a discussion about this a few nights ago - how concerns over climate change might impact our decision on whether or not to buy an otherwise super desirable farm. It makes me sad.

[pixy0stix]

Does it change anyone's minds that the current scientific models show that the shit is going to hit the fan in 25-30 years? And that we're already seeing significant impacts already?

[lilac05]

Sept 3, 2016 11:40:04 GMT -5 aeg511 said:

No, but we're in the Midwest. Our only must was a basement, but they're super common anyway.

This.  And we didn't want to be at the low point of the neighborhood.  That was more for a water leak in the basement, not necessarily flooding.

There was an earthquake felt here this morning, though!  I was asleep & didn't feel it, but friends did. 

[cville]

Yes. Which is why we didn't buy a gorgeous house that I adored because half of the (not large) backyard was in the floodplain. I didn't trust that that floodplain wouldn't increase.

[lilybug]

Yes. Austin as a city seems to keep surprising itself with the areas that can flood. Places that have never flooded before got tons of damage in the last few years, people who had no flood insurance, etc. So I made a conscious effort to buy a house on high ground, in a neighborhood with historically good drainage.

When I was in Iowa we always chose houses with basements for tornado reasons, and had to sleep down there multiple times.

[macmars45]

Yes. We wouldn't buy in an area that has flooded since we've lived here (7-8 years). We live in Western WA state and some areas near us flood or threaten to flood almost yearly.

[lilafowler]

Lol

[katiescarlett]

We live around places that get flooded somewhat often, so we definitely avoided those houses.

[boxertdog]

Definitely considered a small footprint, ease of heating and cooling, etc. we have tornadoes here but no predicting that.

[Deleted]

Heavy snowfall and ice, and flooding. We have lived on a steep curvy hill for 12 yrs, so it is nice to know our new commute is generally flat. Our area has had two "100year floods" in the past 10 years as well, so one of our concerns with the new place was the updated FEMA map (especially since DH works in insurance). DH is also interested in solar panels down ghe road, and we will have a decent location for adding to the roof if we go that route.

[Deleted]

We'll be buying a house next year and I do consider weather event type things.  Before we relocated we were renting in an area that was a known flood zone--I was ok renting there, but I never would have purchased a home there.  


I'm also kind of weirded out by certain areas where the house would be located in an area--like the first houses entering a subdivision seem less than ideal to me because there will always be in and out traffic, also I'm unsure of how I feel about corner lots...<----------ETA: Sorry, I know that's not what this is about LOL.