We’re in a new world, and climate change is real. More of my clients are mentioning climate as a reason to move to Charlottesville. The major real estate search portals are showing climate risk, typically from First Street, which calls itself “The Standard for Climate Risk Financial Modeling.” — I tend to prompt my buyer clients to ask/think about climate factors, and I suspect more of my buyers and sellers will be asking/talking about climate change effects as the climate continues to heat, and insurance companies continue to increase their prices and cancel more customers.
NPR has a story about Zillow’s display of climate risk. Other sides have had the stats for a while, and Zillow is the biggest, and thus gets the press. How long before buyers sort/search by perceived climate risk?
In response to a question about natural disasters in Charlottesville, I wrote this
From memory:
- We have occasional forest fires (see: Skyline Drive a few years ago)
- Derecho (~10 years ago)
- Earthquakes rarely (see ~10 years ago)
- Droughts
- Tornados – I think one in Greene a few years ago
- Flooding (Camille many years ago, and more recently, we seem to have some sort of flooding/flash flooding every few years) — update 2024 – lots of flooding this September/October
- Snow. Occasionally we get a snow event. But not really. (Search for snowmageddon or snowpocalypse + Charlottesville)
Overall, we are more climate protected than many places in the country ….
(side note: and people are recognizing this, and choosing to consider moving here. Charlottesville + Albemarle + surrounding localities need to see this as an opportunity and begin building sufficient and resilient infrastructure suited for the current and future. related: The world’s infrastructure was built for a climate that no longer exists.
