The images were shocking: tidy rows of suburban houses ablaze as a wildfire ripped across the open prairie now populated by fast-growing Louisville, Colo., whose 20,000 residents are nestled perfectly between desirable Boulder and Denver. Some 1,000 homes were a total loss and tens of thousands of residents fled the deadly December fire that flared up unusually late in the season, kindled by a multiyear drought.
The reality is, climate-change impact is already being felt. Natural disasters aren’t new, but their frequency and staying power are intensifying. And key sectors that factor into retirement considerations — real estate and insurance — are lagging in their preparation for a new-normal. According to many experts, climate change poses a potentially dangerous future in some locations even if a warming atmosphere can be slowed by global efforts to swap high-emission oil and gas for solar, wind, hydrogen and nuclear power, and by incentives to eventually designate all gasoline-powered cars for scrap metal and replace them with electric vehicles, electric bicycles and improved public transportation. Some of the warming effects just can’t be reversed.
Be informed: What does science tell us? Every summer, from Miami to Cape Hatteras, N.C., people prepare for a possible hurricane. Residents get ready to shelter in place behind hurricane-grade windows or pack an overnight bag and crate up their pets to flee via a designated route to safety. When big storms do hit, which they tend to do every five to seven years, television broadcasters rapidly descend to cover the chaos and damage.
If it’s not rising water that’s raising concerns, it certainly is an expanding tinder box. A report by the United Nations Environment Program estimates that with even moderate temperature increases, the number of extreme wildfires globally will increase by as much as 30% by midcentury and 50% by 2100.
Real estate agents, mortgage lenders and other professionals in the industry believe buyers aren’t asking enough climate-change questions, especially if they plan to stay in a property for years — and the industry isn’t feeling compelled to disclose much either. It’s true that many factors impact housing prices. Even though California experienced five of the state’s six largest wildfires in state history in 2020, overall housing demand meant that even devastated wildfire communities experienced jumps in home prices, a phenomenon that some said only puts more people in harm’s way since there’s little incentive to take preventive fire measures.