Zillow and Climate Central released an update of “Ocean at the Door,” a report on sea level rise-related coastal flood risks to U.S. housing.
Accelerating sea level rise is increasing coastal flood risk. The report defines risk areas as regions that may expect coastal flooding by 2050, a year soon to be in the range of a 30-year mortgage. The data shows new homes (2010 or later) are being built in coastal flood risk areas. In many cases, the rate of building new homes is faster in risk areas than in safer areas.
Examples of key findings:
- Connecticut is developing homes in risk zones more than 3x faster than safer locations
- Delaware, Mississippi, New Jersey, Rhode Island are building houses in risk zones more than 2x faster than safer locations
- Maine, New Hampshire, and South Carolina are developing risk zones faster than safer locations
- New Jersey, Florida, and North Carolina have allowed the most homes built in risk zones, more than 9,000 since 2010
- 24 cities including New York, Tampa, Virginia Beach, Charleston, and Galveston have allowed at least 100 homes to be built in risk zones since 2010.