Turtles on a beach

Contributor

other

HANDOUT on 8/17/23

The Washington Post

handout

September global average temperature compared to normal

Color1008

HANDOUT on 5/20/14

U.S. President Joe Biden travels to Arizona

For The Washington Post

An illustration shows a military jet emitting an orange hued substance into the atmosphere.

Main image for climate geoengineering comic

1.5 promo image

Floating Solar Aims to Gain Ground in China's Coal Country

Stringer

Days with dangerous heat by mid-century

How climate change is impacting the world

Coronavirus Pandemic 2021 - Death Valley National Park

staff

FILES-BRAZIL-AMAZON-DEFORESTATION

Getty

TOPSHOT-GREENLAND-ENVIRONMENT-CLIMATE CHANGE-ICEBERGS

Wildfires Break Out Across Boulder County In Colorado

Map showing summer temperature change in the U.S. comparing 2017-2021 vs. 1971-2000

EXTREMESUMMER PROMO

World Heat thumbnail

Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Nationals limp home after 11-5 loss to Phillies extends skid to five

Kyle Finnegan’s rare hiccup helps Phillies to a 4-3 win in 10 innings

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

6 Airbnb red flags to spot before you make a booking mistake

Flying budget airlines might not be as cheap as it seems

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

Boeing delays spaceflight again as it continues to struggle with leak

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

Would you eat this weird sandwich? Barry Enderwick would. 

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Who is Mohammad Mokhber? Iran taps acting president after Raisi’s death. 

Live updates: ICC prosecutor seeks arrest warrants for Israel’s Netanyahu and Hamas’s Sinwar

Life in Taiwan is rowdy and proud, never mind China’s threats

Lawyer preparation suggests Trump won’t testify in New York trial

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Carolyn Hax: Is it selfish or self-care to cancel plans, ‘etiquette be damned’?

Ask Amy: I don’t feel connected to my late birth mom’s family

Miss Manners: My husband ignored another Mother’s Day and my birthday

The problem with diversity statements — and what to do about them

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

In photos: The 149th running of the Preakness Stakes

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

Trump trial live updates: Witness testimony continues after Michael Cohen in hush money case

Reporting on Earth’s changing climate and the search for solutions

See more coverage in your recommendations

Climate & environment

The Climate Coach newsletter

Climate alerts

Michael S. Williamson

Hours into a marathon meeting earlier this month, and with little fanfare, the North Carolina Real Estate Commission gave its blessing to a proposal that could have profound impacts in a state where thousands of homes face threats from rising seas, unprecedented rainfall and overflowing rivers.

Soon, anyone who sells a home in the state will be required to disclose to prospective buyers far more about a property’s flood risks — and flood history. Rather than merely noting whether a home is in a federally designated flood zone, they will have to share whether a property has flood insurance, whether any past flood-related claims have been filed, or if the owner has ever received any federal assistance in the wake of a hurricane, tidal inundation or other flood-related disaster.

With the changes, North Carolina became the fourth state this year to embrace more stringent disclosure requirements, joining South Carolina, New York and New Jersey.

Advocates say the shifts, which for the most part encountered little outward opposition, represent an acknowledgment<b> </b>that flood risks are surging throughout the country and that more transparency about those risks is a common-sense measure that could mean more homes have flood insurance and fewer buyers face catastrophic surprises.

“It’s a recognition that flooding is only going to get worse and that they need to take action now to protect home buyers and renters,” said Joel Scata, a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, which <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/resources/how-states-stack-flood-disclosure" target=_blank>tracks flood disclosure laws</a> around the country. “It’s also a recognition of the importance of transparency and fairness.”

Eamon Queeney

The changing disclosure policies come at a time when scientists say the nation’s coastlines will experience as much sea level rise in the coming few decades as they have over the past century. They also have documented how the warming atmosphere is creating <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/09/29/ian-hurricane-rapid-intensification-climate/" target="_blank">more powerful storms</a> and more torrential and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2022/08/06/many-places-are-seeing-more-intense-rainfall-thats-big-problem/" target="_blank">damaging rainfalls</a>, which <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/interactive/2022/fema-flood-risk-maps-failures/" target="_blank">already are inundating</a> communities where aging infrastructure was built for a different era and a different climate.

The more stringent rules adopted this year also follow a path set by some of the country’s most flood-battered states.

Louisiana, facing massive land loss from rising seas and the prospect of stronger storms, has what environmental advocates and even the Federal Emergency Management Administration agree is one of the most robust sets of disclosure laws in the nation. Likewise, in the wake of cataclysmic flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Texas adopted new rules that have also made the state a model for flood disclosure.

But even as several additional states finalized new disclosure rules in 2023, many others still do not require sellers to divulge to buyers whether a home has previously flooded. That includes places such as Florida, which faces significant and rising risks from hurricanes, climate-fueled rain bombs and inland flooding along rivers.

According to NRDC, more than one-third of states have no statutory or regulatory requirement that a seller must disclose a property’s flood risks or past flood damage to potential buyers. Others have varying degrees of requirements — a patchwork that means where people live can greatly influence how much they actually know about the flood risks of a home they buy or rent.

“There are still too many states who keep home buyers in the dark,” Scata said. “That needs to change. Flooding is only going to become more severe due to climate change. And people have a right to know whether their dream home could become a nightmare due to flooding.”

Thomas Simonetti

Earlier this year, FEMA proposed federal legislation that would require states to mandate certain minimum flood risk reporting requirements as a condition for ongoing participation in the National Flood Insurance Program. The agency said having a nationwide requirement would <a href="https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance/rules-legislation/congressional-reauthorization/legislative-proposals" target=_blank>“increase clarity and provide uniformity”</a> in many real estate transactions, but it has not yet become a reality.

That lack of action on Capitol Hill has not stopped individual states from moving forward.

In June, the South Carolina Real Estate Commission added new questions to the state’s residential disclosure that go into far more detail than before, including whether a homeowner has filed public or private flood insurance claims or made flood-related repairs that weren’t submitted to an insurer.

“It’s definitely a step in the right direction,” said Nick Kremydas, chief executive of <a href="https://www.screaltors.org/" target=_blank>South Carolina Realtors</a>, which publicly supported the enhanced disclosure requirements. Still, he said he hopes Congress will eventually allow buyers to access FEMA’s database of flood claims for individual properties. “That’s the best-case scenario.”

Over the summer, New Jersey’s legislature overhauled what NRDC had labeled the state’s “dismal” disclosure requirements, instead putting in place new rules that require sellers to document a wide range of flood-related information. In addition, it requires that purchasers in coastal areas be warned about the potential impacts of sea-level rise.

“The idea is that the more people understand about the hazards, the more they can incorporate that into their decision-making, and the more they can have ownership of those decisions,” said Peter Kasabach, executive director of New Jersey Future, a nonprofit that advocates smarter growth and resilience policies.

Ted Shaffrey

In September, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed similar legislation, calling it a “<a href="https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-signs-legislation-protect-new-yorkers-increasingly-frequent-and-extreme" target=_blank>monumental step</a>” toward protecting residents from the increasing impacts of climate change. In addition to mandating more detailed flood information, it eliminated a previous option that allowed sellers to provide a $500 credit at closing in exchange for waiving the disclosure requirement. The legislation followed a similar measure from late 2022, requiring flood disclosures for renters.

“This is a person’s home, and they should be warned,” said New York State Assembly member Robert Carroll (D), a prime sponsor of the disclosure bills. “This is really about knowledge and proper warning.”

In large swaths of the country, there is little doubt that more properties are likely to face flooding risks over time.

A <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/hazards/sealevelrise/sealevelrise-tech-report.html" target=_blank>report last year</a> by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA and other federal agencies projected that U.S. coastlines will face an additional foot of rising seas by 2050. NOAA has detailed how specific places are likely to see a sharp rise in high-tide, or nuisance, flooding, and that coastal flood warnings “<a href="https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/HighTideFlooding_AnnualOutlook.html" target=_blank>will become much more commonplace</a>” in coming decades.

Likewise, scientists have documented an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/04/10/sea-level-rise-southern-us/" target="_blank">abnormal and dramatic surge</a> in sea levels along the U.S. gulf and southeastern coastlines since about 2010, and other researchers have warned that the nation’s real estate market has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/02/16/flood-risk-housing-market-property-value/" target="_blank">yet to fully account</a> for the expanding threats posed by rising seas, stronger storms and torrential downpours.

Jahi Chikwendiu

In a <a href="https://www.milliman.com/-/media/milliman/pdfs/2022-articles/7-29-22_nrdc-estimating-undisclosed-flood-risk.ashx" target="_blank">study last year</a> commissioned by NRDC, the independent actuarial consulting firm Milliman found that in New Jersey, New York and North Carolina, 28,826 homes sold in 2021 — 6.6 percent of total sales — were estimated to have been previously flooded. In addition, the firm found that expected future annual losses for a home with previous flood damage are significantly higher in each state than for the average of all homes, regardless of flood damage, in that state.

Because one of the best indicators of whether a house will flood is whether it has flooded before, meaningful disclosure requirements are crucial, said<b> </b><a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/staff/brooks-pearson/" target=_blank>Brooks Rainey Pearson</a>, legislative counsel for the North Carolina branch of the Southern Environmental Law Center, which last year <a href="https://www.southernenvironment.org/press-release/north-carolina-real-estate-commission-petitioned-to-disclose-flood-history/#:~:text=CHAPEL%20HILL%2C%20N.C.%E2%80%94The%20Southern,Center%2C%20MDC%2C%20North%20Carolina%20Disaster" target=_blank>petitioned the state’s real estate commission</a> on behalf of multiple environmental and community groups to make the disclosure changes.

“People can take steps to protect themselves when you give them the information they need,” she said. “It matters, because with climate change we are seeing more frequent flooding events, including more intense storms and more flooding of houses. It’s a huge investment for a family to make to buy a house. People deserve to know whether the house they are purchasing has flooded or could flood.”

Pearson says she hopes the changes coming to North Carolina and other states will help illuminate otherwise unknown risks and ultimately help reduce the number of homeowners who are displaced and devastated financially after storms such as Hurricane Florence, which battered her state in 2018.

“What it comes down to,” she said, “is giving the buyer the information they need to make smart decisions.”

Pulitzer Prize, explanatory reporting, 2020

Pulitzer Prize finalist, explanatory reporting, 2009

Pulitzer Prize finalist, national reporting, 2021

Society of Environmental Journalists, Outstanding Explanatory Reporting, first place, 2020

Scripps Howard National Journalism Award for human interest storytelling, 2006

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Brady Dennis is a Pulitzer Prize-winning national reporter for The Washington Post, focusing on environmental and climate stories, primarily around the Southeast. He previously has covered the Environmental Protection Agency, international climate policy, the Food and Drug Administration and  the nation’s economy. 

Brady Dennis

washpost

More states are requiring homeowners to disclose flood risks, past damage

the-washington-post

Remnants of Hurricane Florence Causes Flooding in Fayetteville, N.C.

Environment

Weather

Climate Solutions

Climate Lab

Green Living

Business of Climate

Climate

prism://prism.query/site-articles-only,/climate-environment&limit=20

Sign up for the Climate Coach newsletter and get advice for life on our changing planet, in your inbox every Tuesday.

Washington Post coverage of climate and environment-related issues.

prism://prism.query/tag,climate202&limit=3

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/the-202-newsletters/the-climate-202/

prism://prism.query/site,/climate-environment/climate-policy&limit=20

Climate Politics & Policy

News and analysis of the movements shaping our climate and environment policy, with an eye toward the business of climate policy, legislation and change.