Anonymous wrote:Funny you should mention this. I am from Houston where knowing whether your house floods or not is absolutely crucial! The very first thing I check after schools is flooding ratings. I will not consider anything but a 1. And, I make sure there is a safe non-flooding route to get me to and from work and the grocery store. I feel like nobody cared but me until all these floods started happening. Now, people are paying attention. I would get it investigated formally as I would not consider your house if I were buying just from what Redfin says.

I think places like Houston are a different animal. You guys are barely above sea level, whereas the DC suburban I am in is over 400 ft above sea level.

The "100 year floodplain" from FEMA seems to be about flooding from bodies of water overflowing, called fluvial flooding. First street also includes flooding from rain only, which I guess concerns standing water. I am not expert but these two types of flooding seem like totally different animals. Standing water can be mitigated with sump pumps and French drains in ways fluvial flooding cannot be mitigated.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin is now showing the First Street flood map as an overlay on their map feature. It's really insane. The map shows the rare 0.02% flooding disaster based on first street's doomsday guess. This will absolutely affect market value for a lot of homeowners based largely in fear mongering.

It will and it should. For a very, very long time physical risks have not been priced into home values. We have the technology, so a potential buyer taking out a 30 year mortgage should be able to understand the physical risks that could impact their investment and the likelihood of those risks occurring over the life of their mortgage. Banks also want to know this. Insurers really want to know this and they are not using FEMA flood maps. They are using products like True Flood Risk and HazardHub.

+1. There’s a great recent New Yorker article about this. It’s really concerning how old the data is— FEMA is mainly using data from the 1960s (or earlier) and the article says there are estimates that it’s missing more than 10 million properties that should be in “flood hazard” zone. So millions and millions of people are living in and buying and selling homes in a flood hazard zone and have no idea. Also the article talks about how a lot of people don’t understand the terms— a hundred year floodplain, for example, does not mean it will flood about once a hundred years— it’s actually an annual 1% chance. And even that they think is huge undercount in many cases— many should actually be “60 year” or even in some cases “8 year” plains— which is a far, far higher risk.

Funny you should mention this. I am from Houston where knowing whether your house floods or not is absolutely crucial! The very first thing I check after schools is flooding ratings. I will not consider anything but a 1. And, I make sure there is a safe non-flooding route to get me to and from work and the grocery store. I feel like nobody cared but me until all these floods started happening. Now, people are paying attention. I would get it investigated formally as I would not consider your house if I were buying just from what Redfin says.

Anonymous wrote:I tend to trust this flood factor site. Mystic camp apparently was able to get FEMA to change their classification in a flood zone. Our property is a 9/10 flood factor so I think we’re screwed when we want to sell.

I really think there is a good chance they get sued hard. It is just all a prediction. I don't care how much these scientists think they know about climate change but I just don't believe they can predict things like this.

While on the one hand it is hysteria, on the other hand, it gives people a false sense of security when they are not in the flood zone. But honestly your day to day headaches of basement flooding etc has way more to do with how your house sits on your plot, mitigation factors, and just overall maintenance of the house. A couple of houses that I know have basement flooding issues are rated low on first street, but those houses would give you a daily headache vs some 0.02% chance of a biblical storm.

Buy a boat and some waders.

I tend to trust this flood factor site. Mystic camp apparently was able to get FEMA to change their classification in a flood zone. Our property is a 9/10 flood factor so I think we’re screwed when we want to sell.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin is now showing the First Street flood map as an overlay on their map feature. It's really insane. The map shows the rare 0.02% flooding disaster based on first street's doomsday guess. This will absolutely affect market value for a lot of homeowners based largely in fear mongering.

It will and it should. For a very, very long time physical risks have not been priced into home values. We have the technology, so a potential buyer taking out a 30 year mortgage should be able to understand the physical risks that could impact their investment and the likelihood of those risks occurring over the life of their mortgage. Banks also want to know this. Insurers really want to know this and they are not using FEMA flood maps. They are using products like True Flood Risk and HazardHub.

Oh please tell me a bank that has required flood insurance based on “True Flood Risk” where the fema flood maps show the property is out of a flood zone.

You’re full of shıt

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Redfin is now showing the First Street flood map as an overlay on their map feature. It's really insane. The map shows the rare 0.02% flooding disaster based on first street's doomsday guess. This will absolutely affect market value for a lot of homeowners based largely in fear mongering.

It will and it should. For a very, very long time physical risks have not been priced into home values. We have the technology, so a potential buyer taking out a 30 year mortgage should be able to understand the physical risks that could impact their investment and the likelihood of those risks occurring over the life of their mortgage. Banks also want to know this. Insurers really want to know this and they are not using FEMA flood maps. They are using products like True Flood Risk and HazardHub.

Agree there should be accurate risk assessment but not sure a for profit company that makes money selling you flood insurance is it. This is really a job for FEMA, not some private company.