Climate impacts add up to an unspoken amount of trouble for home owners, which further depresses the housing market. That is, more flooding equals higher insurance premiums. Banks calculate risk of a loan based on factors such as risk of flooding. It’s very serious business, and the economy depends on a comfortable middle class with stable home ownership.

“A factor in higher water claims is a big increase in the number of severe rainstorms,” says Mr. Ross. “Every year we seem to see more catastrophes, by which I mean an event where there’s a lot of water that creates a glut of claims.”

I think that Gen-X and Y are primed to be the next wave of home owners - but they’re not interested. They’re not interested because of the costs, because their parents got burned, and because they are more mobile. People under 40 do not stay in one place for very long, especially since they hop from job to job every 3 to 5 years. Not looking well for the housing markets, nor for city budgets who depend on a strong, or at least stable, tax base. 

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