In the US there is a high risk of flooding in these coastal areas, such as parts of the States of Texas and Louisiana, where there are the poor who can’t afford private insurance. This situation pushed the experts at concealment of the data about the threat, not to create even more financial hardship for those whose homes, taken out a mortgage, can go under water, according to Bloomberg.
According to the latest survey of the nonprofit organization First Street Foundation, in the USA, 8.7 million homes were under the threat of flooding. This number may be understated by 67 percent, that is, unable to suffer another six million of real estate.
on the one hand, risk assessment of potential natural disasters allows you to develop good behavior in the real estate market, for example in terms of construction in hazardous coastal areas. On the other, a bad forecast means a reduction of the property value.
As the Director of the program of Union of concerned scientists (Union of Concerned Scientists) Rachel Cletus, she and her colleagues refused to publish the data for each individual home, when the study was conducted in 2018. Instead, the data were sorted by zip code. According to scientists, individuals do not create the problem of climate change and should not be held responsible for the economic consequences alone. The solution lies in collective action for the restoration of wetlands or reduction of emissions of greenhouse gases.
Experts have identified another problem for poor areas. Banks refuse to provide loans for the purchase of risky real estate. This is reminiscent of the situation where the borrowing organization does not want to allocate a housing loan of racial minorities. Because historically, that they pay less taxes or not pay them at all, financing infrastructure and Sewerage systems in places of their compact residence is not provided. Therefore, the level of vulnerability to floods increases, which worsens the investment attractiveness and creates a vicious circle.
