An article in the New York Times highlights the experience of homeowners in Houston's poorest neighborhoods as they struggle to bounce back from climate-related natural disasters. As frequent flooding, and most recently last month's winter storm, have continued to hit communities, low-income communities are the slowest to bounce back, if they do at all.
A recent article in CNN highlights how climate change is accelerating gentrification as wealthier people seek to move to neighborhoods of lower climate risk, such as those situated on higher elevation and less prone to floods. The article highlights gentrification in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina, where the share of Black population in Census tracts with the highest median elevations — those a meter or more above sea level — fell by more than a third between 2000 and 2019.
A recent New York Times article highlights the sobering findings from a new report by the First Street Foundation showing that the costs of federal flood insurance will need to increase significantly to cover the increasing risks posed by climate change.
An article in Bloomberg CityLab highlights how real estate investors and developers are increasingly taking into consideration climate risk factors in deciding whether to purchase land, including looking at what local governments have done to prepare for climate change. The article underscores the fact that the real estate industry is increasingly recognizing that the long-term viability of investments will be dependent on factors such as climate predictions, critical infrastructure investments, and fiscal policy constraints.
Following the lead of several other Bay Area cities, Oakland and San Jose this week adopted bans on natural gas in the construction of most new buildings. Last July, Berkeley became the first city in the nation to ban natural gas. Other Bay Area cities, including San Francisco and Richmond, followed suit in subsequent months.
A recent article in Politico highlights the massive risks that climate change poses to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the federal home lending entities.
A new article in the New York Times highlights the nearly quarter-million flood insurance policies that are in violation of a simple rule: if you want publicly-subsidized flood insurance, you cannot build a home that is likely to flood.
An article posted today in CalMatters highlights an issue that cities along California's coast must address as sea levels continue to rise: how can vulnerable structures be re-located to safer ground? "Managed retreat", or the purposeful and planned re-location of people and infrastructure away from the shoreline, is one of the scenarios that coastal communities must plan and prepare for.
A recent article in the New York Times highlights the impact that climate change is having on American homeownership-- specifically, the risks of sea level rise and flooding are making banks warier of lending to homebuyers in vulnerable areas. Climate change risks have already begun to push down home prices in coastal areas and along rivers. Furthermore, banks are trying to get loans off of their books by selling to government-backed buyers like Fannie Mae, meaning that taxpayers would be on the hook if the loans were to fail.
An article in the New York Times highlights the growing acceptance of planned relocation, also known as "managed retreat", strategies to move homes out of harm's way amid rising sea levels and more frequent and severe hurricanes and storms.