Banks Are Finally Realizing What Climate Change Will Do to Housing

4 comments

1. Rising sea levels, biodiversity collapse, extreme weather—these are the grisly horsemen of climate apocalypse. But don’t forget the fretting loan officers. [A study published earlier this year](https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0927539823001123) found that US mortgage approvals tend to dip following periods of hotter-than-normal weather. For every 1 degree Celsius that temperatures rise above average, approvals fell by nearly 1 percent—and their value by more than 6.5 percent.

   Lower consumer demand was only part of the problem, according to the study’s authors. The effect was mostly down to loan officers’ worries about climate change and what it might mean for the assets they were lending against. In other words, climate change was devaluing property before their very eyes.

   Full story: [https://www.wired.com/story/banks-are-finally-realizing-what-climate-change-will-do-to-housing/](https://www.wired.com/story/banks-are-finally-realizing-what-climate-change-will-do-to-housing/)

2. But they can’t do much about it, other than refuse new mortgages. The mortgages they already hold are no longer worth their face value, all they can do is try to pass them on but nobody will want them. Potentially big trouble.

3. You mean like stealing our civil rights while bankrupting our citizens with no impact on CO2 levels?

4. Just realizing it? I live in a city on a flood plain, live on one of the lowest points in that city, and have the highest rate for flood insurance. If the levees should break and I get flooded out I’m not rebuilding. Just taking the money, paying to have the debris removed selling the lot and moving away. This neighborhood shouldn’t exist in today’s climate.