Homes at higher elevations in hurricane-risk coastal areas are gaining value at a faster pace than those closer to sea level, CBS News reports.
The trend is particularly evident in places like Miami, where “climate gentrification” is becoming a common buzzword. The term is used to describe the increasing role that volatile weather patterns and rising sea levels are playing in reconfiguring land values. Some experts say climate change could potentially displace low-income and minority residents in a way similar to urban gentrification.
As flooding fears persist in Miami, waterfront properties are losing some draw. Instead, neighborhoods at higher elevations—like Little Haiti and Little Havana—are growing in popularity among high-end buyers.
Some experts aren’t convinced climate is influencing property value variations quite yet, but they do believe it will have a bigger role in the near future. Jesse M. Keenan, a researcher on urban development and climate adaptation at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design, tracked the rate of price appreciation since 1971 for more than 250,000 residential properties in Miami-Dade County. Keenan then compared those figures to elevation. Keenan found that properties at higher elevations have long appreciated faster in Miami, but Keenan insists it’s mostly due to non-climate factors.
But Keenan predicts that over the next decade, climate change will become a more significant factor in housing markets in many cities across the U.S. Since 2000, the correlation between elevation and price appreciation has grown stronger in Miami, which Keenan calls an “early signaling” of preference for properties at higher elevations and home buyers’ stronger reaction to flooding fears in lower areas. He predicts that high-risk properties at lower elevations could see values drop suddenly.
“This is real,” Keenan told CBS News. “There are actual people spending lots of money thinking about how to make money from climate change. We have to come to terms with this sooner than later.”
Source: “‘Climate Gentrification’ Could Add Value to Elevation in Real Estate,” CBS News (Dec. 28, 2017)
