Earth Day. It is one of those holidays that feels like a feeble attempt to acknowledge that as dominant inhabitants of the only planet in the solar system that maintains life we ought to think about protecting it. I put it in the same category as Mother’s Day. It’s all well and good to take your mom to brunch and maybe buy her flowers. But what about the other 364 days of the year? Isn’t that more important? Call it cynicism, if you will. I call it realism.
Last week I had the privilege of touring a house in New Orleans. It was a small shotgun in good condition in a neighborhood uptown that was otherwise unremarkable except for the fact that the new owners happen to be my sister-in-law Julia, and her future husband, Cody. On August 26, 2021, three days after closing on their first home, Hurricane Ida hit New Orleans. A Category 4 storm, Ida happened to hit on the same day as Hurricane Katrina had 16 years early. When Ida hit landfall, Julia and Cody had arrived safely in Houston, after sitting on the highway for 10 hours with other evacuees. They waited it out in Texas for three weeks until the city of New Orleans regained power. Imagine the anxiety of being a brand new homeowner during a catastrophic event like that? As Julia recounted the story she told me that her neighbors helped to get her through it by giving her daily updates, one of whom, a 98 year old woman who was “not afraid of a little storm.” She also said that she was eternally grateful to their realtor who“wouldn’t even let us put in offers in certain flood zones.” It may come as no surprise to hear that Julia and Cody are Millennials—a generation known to be very concerned about climate change.
New Orleans may be in its own special risk category for many homeowners but don’t forget that Hurricane Ida devastated areas up and down the Atlantic coast. And Ida was only 1 of 20 weather/climate disasters that occurred in the United States in 2021, a total price tag of $145 billion. That’s a slap you up-side-the-head number!
Courtesy of the National Centers for Environmental Information
Yet despite these many climate related disasters all around the country, a recent survey conducted by PropertyNest found that 64% of buyers who purchased homes last year did not factor in climate change when choosing their new home. The top reason in the survey was simply that it didn’t even occur to them.
Courtesy of PropertyNest
Despite the fact that the majority of homebuyers did not prioritize climate change, we are still seeing it effect pricing in certain areas that seem particularly vulnerable like New Orleans and Miami. Fearing floods, people are flocking to higher ground and they are willing to pay a premium for it. What is happening as a result is climate driven gentrification. In New Orleans, the census data tells the story in a dramatic way. The neighborhood with the second highest elevation went from being 75% Black in 2000 to 71% White by 2019. A similar pattern is discernible in Miami in Little Haiti, a neighborhood that has seen home values triple since 2010.
The real estate industry is way behind in terms of guiding and disclosing buyers through implications of climate on a property. Nationally, lenders are required to disclose if a home is located in a high flood zone but brokers and agents don’t have to. So what of the cash buyer that wants that turn-key house on the river or the perfect insurance-funded flip in the wildfire area? If they want it, we’ll sell it. Just pay the commission. We are also grossly uneducated about sustainability, passive house technology, and green building (myself included). And yet the consumer values it more and more, especially as the Millennials and Gen Z-ers come of age.
Climate change may not be a huge concern or priority for your clients, in your particular market, but wouldn’t it be responsible, ethical, and dare I say forward thinking if you asked? How much do you know about flood zones in the neighborhood you work in? Air and water quality? Heavy metal levels? Soil toxins? If you care nothing about the earth, at least be a good human being and look out for one another. At least be a real estate agent that doesn’t live in the dark ages. That’s what Earth Day can do for you. It can be a reminder to get your head out of the sand and educate yourself and others. Oh, and while I’m at it…call your mother!
Until next week,
