Playing with House Money
Some words you might be happy to see in a real estate listing for your home: Breathtaking, Pristine, Charming. Some words you might not be happy to see in a real esate listing for your home: Smoldering, Scorching, Blub, blub, blub… In the Atlantic (Gift Article), Vann R. Newkirk II gives an overview of What Climate Change Will Do to America by Mid-Century. “Over the next 30 years or so, the changes to American life might be short of apocalyptic. But miles of heartbreak lie between here and the apocalypse, and the future toward which we are heading will mean heartbreak for millions. Many people will go in search of new homes in cooler, more predictable places. Those travelers will leave behind growing portions of America where services and comforts will be in short supply—let’s call them ‘dead zones.’ Should the demolition of America’s rule of law continue, authoritarianism and climate change will reinforce each other, a vicious spiral from which it will be difficult to exit. How do we know this? As ever, all it takes is looking around … Yet 2025 has been perhaps the single most devastating year in the fight for a livable planet. An authoritarian American president has pressed what can only be described as a policy of climate-change acceleration—destroying commitments to clean energy and pushing for more oil production. It doesn’t require an oracle to see where this trajectory might lead.” As obvious as the arriving danger is, there are still plenty of deniers. So how does one know who to believe? As always, it pays to follow the money. Or in this case, the absence of money, as homeowners in an increasing number of places are seeing insurance prices soar which is making their home values sink. Even if your home isn’t yet underwater, your mortgage might be. NYT (Gift Article): A Climate ‘Shock’ Is Eroding Some Home Values. New Data Shows How Much. The problem for many home owners across the country can be boiled down this: Politicians may lie, but the numbers don’t. And no one crunches those numbers more than reinsurance companies. “Insurance companies purchase reinsurance to help limit their exposure when a catastrophe hits. Over the past several years, global reinsurance companies have had what the researchers call a ‘climate epiphany’ and have roughly doubled the rates they charge home insurance providers.” Nothing can hammer home reality like the bottom line.
