Housing policy levers for equitable climate adaptation

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

As climate change intensifies, the housing market is undergoing a major transformation with significant economic, social, and environmental implications. Property values are increasingly responsive to climate risk, insurance is becoming more expensive or unavailable altogether, and the price tag of disaster recovery continues to climb. Amidst these co-occurring climate and housing crises, there is a strong need for new policy solutions that mitigate long-term property damage, protect vulnerable homeowners, and buffer the broader economy. In response, a suite of new housing policies is being unveiled across the country that reform insurance markets, rethink disaster aid, and introduce new climate risk information into housing markets. 

This panel brings together four papers that examine federal, state, and local housing policy responses to climate risk, including flooding, tornadoes, and wildfires. The papers explore effects on residential mobility, home values, and mortgage financing, with attention to how these effects vary by race and class. 

Two papers examine how climate risk disclosure laws reshape housing markets. Sarah Bass and Michael Fogarty study California’s 2021 wildfire disclosure reform, finding that disclosure reduces housing prices and reshapes both financing and buyer composition. Katherine Thomas studies Texas’s 2019 flood disclosure reform and finds that, after the disclosure, mortgage applications in high-risk flood zones increased in low-income counties, with the largest increases for Black, Latino, and low-income households. 

Sungha Jo studies effects of subsidized flood insurance on residential mobility and finds evidence to suggest that subsidized flood insurance facilitates demographic growth in relatively safer locations rather than incentivizing settlement in the riskiest areas. Finally, Amy Read studies the long-term effects of repeated tornado exposure on housing stock and finds that federal funding has a protective role against long-term reduction in housing stock.  

Together, the papers in this panel offer early evidence about the successes and unintended consequences of emergent climate-housing policy.

Policy Area

• Natural Resource, Energy, and Environmental Policy

Chair

• Max Besbris, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Discussants

• Kate W H Harwood, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

• Meri Davlasheridze, Texas A&M University

Organizer

• Katherine Anne Thomas, New York University

Individual Presentations

• Moving to Risk: The Effect of Climate Risk Information on Residential Mobility and Spatial Inequality - Presenting Author: Katherine Anne Thomas, New York University

• Sustained reduction in housing stock as a long-term effect of repeated disaster exposure - Presenting Author: Amy Read, Princeton University

• The Role of Flood Insurance on Population and Demographic Changes - Presenting Author: Sungha Jo, Indiana University

• Home Financing Responses to Wildfire Risk Information and Insurance Availability - Presenting Author: Sarah Bass, University of Georgia