Housing Equality & Policy
All Policy & Current Issues
September 12, 2022
Redfin users who viewed homes with severe and/or extreme flood risk prior to a Redfin experiment proceeded to bid on homes with 54% less risk after gaining access to risk data. Redfin users in flood-prone Cape Coral, FL, Houston and Baton Rouge, LA were most likely to click into the flood-risk section within home listings. […]
September 9, 2022
55% of homes being built today face fire risk, compared with 14% of homes built from 1900 to 1959, as suburbanization and a shift to the Sun Belt have driven builders into more vulnerable areas. Recently-built homes are also more likely than older homes to face drought, heat and flood risk, but the gap is […]
August 31, 2022
74% of U.S. metros with more than half of homes facing intense drought saw more people move in than out this year. An estimated $17 trillion worth of homes (about 25 million properties) experienced intense drought in August, up 42% from a year earlier. There were 13 metros, including Las Vegas, Sacramento and Austin, where […]
July 15, 2022
Nationwide, energy costs are taking up a smaller portion of homeowner expenses because they’re not surging nearly as quickly as housing prices. The typical U.S. household spent an estimated $2,127 on energy utility bills in 2021, equal to 14.8% of the annual mortgage payment for homebuyers. That compares with $1,986 (15.8%) a year earlier and […]
July 5, 2022
Purchases of second homes with high flood, storm and/or heat risk surged roughly 40% over the past two years. Many pandemic homebuyers purchased vacation homes, which are frequently vulnerable to natural disasters. In 2020 and 2021, purchases of second homes with high flood risk rose 45% from the prior two-year period (2018-2019), according to a […]
