The Ultimate Guide to Finding a Climate Haven
Follow this step by step guide to find climate resilient real estate, or ask LucidHome.co to do it for you.
Read the full post on the Lucid Home Blog for the most comprehensive step by step guide to buying climate resilient real estate.
I finally found a climate haven! The truth was it was far too difficult. Lucky for you, reader, I developed a method that will make it easier for you to find low-risk, climate-safe property. The following is my step by step method for finding a climate haven.
This method takes a bit of work. But the good news is that understanding climate risks via this method will actually save you time and money during the home hunt. This method will help you avoid costly damage to your future home. Most of all it will help you live a safe, lower stress life in a place you know will be at lower risk to climate catastrophe.
Better news: Lucid Home can do this work for you.
Get a Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment on a Property or Region
If you don’t have time to do the method below, the Lucid Home team can do it for you. For a limited time we are offering custom reports and consultations.
Request a custom Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment here.
We will send you a Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment with detailed information on climate risks for any property or region in the US. The Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment will be customized to the number of years that you intend to own the property. We are asking folks to pay what they can for the assessment, so pricing is up to you.
Soon the Lucid Home Reports will be automated and instant. Sign up here for early access to Lucid Home.
Why Buy a Climate Haven?
As I’ve written before Climate change is already an enormous threat. As it gets worse it will make parts of the world and the US unlivable. Even in the best scenario 40+ million Americans homes are at risk of climate catastrophes.
I’m particularly aware of the risks because I have a background in Climate Policy. I’ve worked in Washington DC writing bills to address climate change in the US Senate. I wrote energy and environment policy at the leading think tank the Center for American Progress. And I worked with clean-tech companies at a leading lobbying firm. With my experience, I knew where to go to research climate change and climate risks. I developed the method below based on the most advanced science and predictions by the experts.
The good news is that there are plenty of places to live that have low exposure to climate risks. These places are Climate Havens and they are readily available. Often Climate Havens are under the radar and less expensive than high risk regions.
I repeat this in every blog post I write because it is so important to consider:
You don’t need to be rich to find a climate haven. You just need to be well informed.
I hope sharing the method of finding a climate haven helps you get the info. you need to find a safe, lovely place to live.
Step 1: Set Your Personal Parameters
Here are a set of questions you should ask yourself when you begin the house hunt:
- What region do you want to live in?
- How long do you plan to own the property?
- What is your risk tolerance?
- What kind of environment are you looking for? Urban, small town, farmland, woodland, mountain, lakeside etc.
Step 2: Find a Climate Resilient County or Region
Note: If you already know what county or neighborhood you want to live in regardless of climate risks, skip to Step 3.
The goal here is to find a region and a county to live in that can withstand the impacts of climate change and can recover quickly if there is a climate catastrophe. This of course depends on your personal climate risk tolerance from step 1.
The EPA has developed a Climate Resiliency Screening Index (CRSI) that provides a climate resiliency rating for each county in the United States. Resilience means that the region has less exposure to climate disruptions and that it can recover more easily when climate threats do arise.
The map below visualizes the Climate Resilience Screening Index score of counties in the United States. The darker blue the more resilient.
FEMA’s National Risk Index is another great tool to evaluate counties. It will give you a sense of how the county ranks in the US compared to all other counties for Natural Disaster Risk. It also provides information on expected annual loss due to natural disasters, social vulnerability, and community resilience.
Step 3: Research the County and Its Specific Climate Risks
Once you’ve identified an attractive county, the next step is to dig into the county’s specific climate risks to make sure you feel comfortable living there. Every region will have some risks, so it’s best to understand them and make sure they line up with your personal risk tolerance.
Specific things to research and related links
- Climate impacts on Temperature and Precipitation.
- Flood projections and elevation.
- Wildfire risk.
- Potential climate impacts to water quality.
- Projected Land Use to understand how the region’s environment and land will change.
- Superfund sites.
- Nuclear waste storage sites and nuclear facilities.
- History of disasters and loss.
- Migration.
Step 4: Find a Climate-Knowledgeable Real Estate Agent
A real estate agent can help you understand the region and the anecdotal risks people are already experiencing. They should have a sense of which properties have already experienced damage from flooding, wildfire and other climate related hazards.
The real estate agent is generally incentivized to get you to close the deal. So most agents will not want to discuss climate risks or negative attributes of the house. This is why finding a frank, honest, and well informed real estate agent can be incredibly helpful.
We found a real estate agent in the Adirondacks who was a local and was intimately familiar with the area’s flood history. She told us about a huge flood “the Halloween flood” in 2019 that had washed away entire towns. She knew which properties had flooded and which had stayed dry. This was incredibly helpful information for our search.
Informed by our real estate agent, we stayed away from lakefront and riverfront properties and found a great house on elevated ground in the mountainous area.
Step 5: Evaluate Specific Property: What to Look for and What to Avoid
You’ve found a climate resilient county and a knowledgeable real estate agent. You’re starting to look at properties in the county or in specific cities, neighborhoods, or towns you like.
Great work! Now it’s time to evaluate the specific property for climate risks and other environmental risks, particularly during the time period you’d like to live there.
When evaluating property research the following attributes:
1. Flooding. Consider the property’s proximity to floodplains, history of flooding, and predictions for floods. Flooding risk can change on a block to block basis. One side of the street might flood while the other remains dry.
2. Wildfire. Wildfire can also change on a block to block basis, though it is very difficult to predict at the property level. If you are in a county with some risk of wildfire, look into local wildfire records to get a sense of how close wildfires have historically come to the house.
3. History and risk of extreme weather. Research and ask the locals about extreme weather events that have happened in the last few years, decades, and what are predicted — this includes hurricanes, tornados, heat, draught, high winds etc
4. Water access. You’ll need to dig into the deed/title and the local water rules. Questions to ask the seller and real estate agent include: where does the water supplying the property come from? How long will that aquifer remain stable? Who owns the rights to the water on the property? How has the local government been maintaining the water system?
5. Insurance. Ask insurance companies if they insure the property for all potential causes. Is there anything they won’t insure? Insurance companies provide 1 year contract, so even if they agree to insure the property this year, they might not insure it in the future — look into longer-term insurance research and projections
6. Environment and pollution. Environment and pollution aren’t exactly a climate risk, but they could be exacerbated by climate catastrophes like flooding, wildfire, and extreme heat. Understand local air pollution. Look into any environmental disasters in the region. Also research what kind of waste is produced and where it goes. If you find concerning nearby environmental hazards, consider doing an environmental assessment to understand the risks on the property.
7. Access. Are there multiple roads to access the property? It’s risky if there’s only one access road because it could get washed out or blocked in a flood or wildfire.
8. Infrastructure and local government preparations. Talk to the local government to learn if they have invested in proper infrastructure like drainage, sewage, waste management, water treatment, etc to prepare for local effects of climate change.
We’ll Do the Work for You. Get a Lucid Climate Risk Assessment.
If the above sounds like too much work we can do it for you.
Request a custom Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment here.
We will send you a Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment with detailed information on climate risks for any property or region in the US. The Lucid Home Climate Risk Assessment will be customized to the number of years that you intend to own the property. We are asking folks to pay what they can for the assessment, so pricing is up to you.
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