“This is not a ‘global financial crisis’ kind of event,” Burt said, noting the total housing market is worth about $45 trillion. “But in the communities where the impacts are happening, it will feel like the Great Recession.”
So: don’t buy a house in a flood or fire prone area or you won’t be able to afford insurance and will suffer a total loss…got it.
Title is a little dramatic.
When you frame it that way it sounds simple. Go find the map that clearly defines which places aren’t either of those things currently and aren’t expected to turn into one or the other due to climate change.
Spoiler alert: there’s not very many of those places and they definitely can’t take in all the people who would need to move there in order to make this problem irrelevant.
Spoiler alert: there’s not very many of those places and they definitely can’t take in all the people who would need to move there in order to make this problem irrelevant.
There are huge portions of the middle of the country that qualify as “not in a flood zone” and “not in a wildfire risk area”. Even if there aren’t enough homes in these places now, when you house burns down or floods where it is, how about not rebuilding it in the same fire for flood prone place?
Usually insurance doesn’t pay for you to relocate across the US. It pays for very specific repairs to your house (that they try and get out of).
You’re not going to be able to slap your forehead and go “woopsie” when the flood comes. And you’re not going to be able to sell your house either because the fish people aren’t into real estate yet.
My comrad in crisis, who is rebuilding at all?
There are huge portions of the middle of the country that qualify as “not in a flood zone” and “not in a wildfire risk area”.
Tornadoes?
Oh, again?
I think you meant “still?”
We didn’t reset the board. We punted.
Hah yeah, very true. Turns out that kicking the can down the road doesn’t fix the underlying issues, who woulda thunk?
Once in a lifetime event, again?
Who’s going to get those sweet tax dollar bailouts this time?
It’s kind of a stupid article.
The 1.2 trillion dollar problem exists because insurers fudged their risk calculations to compete with each other, and are blaming climate change as a reason they can’t stay solvent when their risky models fail to keep delivering profits.
The two “points” I see being made are that poor insurers can’t raise rates because nobody wants them to because it’ll slow growth, but also, some states have protections on how quickly rates can be raised, so insurers that raced to the bottom are stuck there. Meh.
Hey I’ve seen this episode before
It’s a classic!
