Climate Change, Urbanization ‘Should We Sell?’ After Collapse, Hot Florida Market Faces Uncertainty

Perry World House Visiting Scholar Jesse M. Keenan comments on how climate change is impacting housing in coastal Florida in The New York Times.

Ines Mason bought the 14th-floor condo in a building perched on an island in Biscayne Bay five years ago as a getaway, lured by the captivating view of the water. “In the morning, the sun rises, you can see that,” she said. “It’s amazing.” But after seeing another high rise similar to her own collapse nearly two weeks ago in the nearby city of Surfside, suddenly her Florida escape turned into a source of anxiety. She became concerned about the structural integrity of her building, which is about 30 years old....

Champlain Towers residents were facing assessments ranging from $80,000 to as high as $200,000 for repairs to address major problems with the building — sums that were not all that unusual for developments that old.

Those sites also have had to reckon with the added costs of living in a coastal environment, like shifting sediment, subsidence and the corrosive effect of saltwater. “This is the first generation in the postwar period, thinking that we can engineer around the forces of nature,” said Jesse Keenan, a professor studying housing and climate adaptation at Tulane University. “These buildings are reaching the end of their useful life.”

Read more in The New York Times >>