Barely 1/3 Of Miami Homebuyers Even Ask About Sea Levels, Likely Long-Term Climate Impacts

[hatrack]

EDIT

The 2017 Miami-Dade Real Estate Study, conducted by the Miami Herald released with polling firm Bendixen & Amandi International, came out this week. In the past month, they interviewed 100 “of the area’s top brokers, agents and analysts,” while guaranteeing anonymity.

Buried deep in the study is the jaw-dropping fact that the majority of respondents (64 percent) said their clients have not mentioned climate change and sea level rise as an issue when purchasing properties — which means that the true level of clients not asking about climate change is much higher. An agent would say his clients asked about climate change if even one client did, but for nearly two-thirds of agents, no one even asked.

This is a stunning degree of obliviousness by home buyers in city where, as Bloomberg has explained, “Tidal flooding now predictably drenches inland streets, even when the sun is out, thanks to the region’s porous limestone bedrock.” Indeed, Sean Becketti, the chief economist for mortgage giant Freddie Mac, warned a year ago that the coastal property bubble will burst sooner than expected: “Some residents will cash out early and suffer minimal losses. Others will not be so lucky.” That could be why 59 percent of the agents said that they themselves are “concerned about the potential impact of global climate change and sea level rise on the local market.”

EDIT

Jesse Keenan, who is studying coastal property values, has “begun to see evidence in survey data that middle-income people are leaving Miami Beach and other places with nuisance flooding that makes it difficult to get around at high tides or insure a car,” Scientific American reported in May. “It’s not out of the question that Miami Beach loses 20 percent of its population and most of those people go to the mainland,” Keenan told Scientific American. “I’m talking about the next 20 years.”

EDIT

https://thinkprogress.org/buyers-in-miami-please-dont-926bfb4a2cf1

[procon]

1. Isn't it incumbent on the real estate agent to inform buyers

of any potential risks? People often don't ask the necessary questions in buying a home, that's why they work with a good realtor who will protect their interests.

In California, our realtor warned us that a house we were considering was in a flood risk from a nearby stream which was no more than a trickle, but in heavy rains or snowmelt from higher elevations it turned into an impassable torrent. The property was a risk from forest fires too, and that resulted in high insurance costs.

[hatrack]

3. And lose a sale?

More seriously, I'm honestly not sure what legal responsibility rests with the RE agent.

You'd think that if the seller and seller's agent are required to disclosed the possibility of lead paint, they'd be required to talk about little things like . . . oh, I don't know, maybe the house being underwater (literally) some day, but then I'm not a real estate broker.

[procon]

4. Maybe California laws are more consumer orientated, and I'm grateful for that. nt

[pansypoo53219]

2. my atmospheric PHd cousin was happy to find a miami house 6 ft above sea level.

i am sure he can stay there til he retires. he made sure he was close to a hospital(post-hurricane) and above sea level.

[LonePirate]

5. There is no way I would buy property in southern Florida or Louisiana.

It's essentially throwing money down a well.