Oh Noes: Climate Doom Driving Concern In Real Estate Market Or Something

Not sure about you, but, I know plenty of real estate agents and people who have bought and plan to buy homes, and none of them are mentioning ‘climate change’ as a concern

After Helene, climate concerns ripple through North Carolina real estate market

When floodwaters from Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina last year, the damage extended far beyond washed-out roads and broken homes. It also changed how many people think about where they live and what their homes are really worth.

Now, climate risk is emerging as a new force in the state’s housing market, influencing everything from insurance premiums to buyer confidence. Real estate agents say the conversation has shifted, with stormwater maps and flood histories becoming nearly as relevant as square footage and school districts.

Ashley Rummage, a Raleigh-area Realtor who grew up in Boone, said Helene was a wake-up call.

“We really have an ethical duty to our clients to be more informed about sustainability and the built environment,” she said. “We need to be educated on how to advise people when it comes to where to look for floodplain information.”

In other words, an excuse to jack up home prices more, which are already up 150% since COVID.

Traditional FEMA maps, long used to determine flood risk, are now being supplemented and sometimes contradicted by new predictive tools. One example is the First Street Foundation database, which is integrated into Zillow listings through a “climate check” feature that estimates a property’s future vulnerability to flooding or wildfires.

The websites are the ones pushing this, but, the buyers mostly do not care. Now, they might care about purchasing in a flood zone, just like always. When I bought my townhome back in 2009 it was a concern, being pretty close to the Neuse River, but, those maps show me in a once in 5000 years zone. You’d really have to get like 30-40 feet of river rise to come close.

That kind of extra effort has become more common in a state where climate patterns and real estate trends are changing together. Sharon Gupton, president of the Raleigh Regional Association of Realtors, said awareness has grown dramatically among both buyers and builders since she started selling homes in the 1980s.

“Every homeowner and home seller is more inclined now to understand that weather affects so much of our properties,” Gupton said. “As agents, we talk through that with them. The public is just much more knowledgeable about how the environment affects our homes.”

It’s rather a good idea to understand flood patterns, is it not? Something that has always been a concern (though, ignored at times, like the idiots who build homes on the Outer Banks, which, being barrier islands, move), and, with all construction becoming denser, more roads, more pavement, etc, causing runoff patters to change, yeah, it’s a concern. Doesn’t have to be climate doom.

In North Carolina, those questions are colliding with the realities of rapid urban growth. Cities such as Raleigh and Wilmington are rewriting long-term development plans that integrate stormwater design, tree canopy protection and denser, more efficient housing.

“We’re seeing places flood that have never flooded before,” Gupton said. “So municipalities are rethinking zoning, in some cases going higher instead of wider.”

Nothing to do with climate, natural or anthropogenic. I saw flooding in a spot that I’d never seen flood when we had some seriously hard rain because it was running off from a construction site, where all the vegetation and trees were eliminated. These people are acting like this stuff has never happened before. Because they’re a cult.