More than one in four U.S. homes—amounting to $12.7 trillion in real estate—faces at least one type of “severe or extreme climate risk,” like floods, hurricanes, and wildfires, according to a Realtor.com® Climate Risk Report. The report by economist Jiayi Xu details how these mounting climate threats are reshaping housing markets, creating major financial burdens for homeowners, and driving up the cost and complexity of insurance nationwide.
Overall, it finds that 26% of U.S. homes are at severe or extreme risk, with flood risks particularly underestimated by the federal government. Nearly 6 million homes ($3.4 trillion in value) face severe flooding in the next 30 years, about 2 million more than FEMA estimates, due to outdated flood maps. Major metro areas like Miami, New York, Tampa, Los Angeles, and Houston collectively hold hundreds of billions of dollars in at-risk property.
