There are some real estate locations that never lose their appeal. It doesn’t matter what kind of disasters befall them, they just keep coming back as top locations for construction and restoration of damaged properties. Whether it’s hurricanes, earthquakes, mudslides, or floods, people are willing to take their chances to own a piece of paradise.
Coastlines
Florida, Texas, California, Mississippi, Alabama, and the Carolinas all have their share of weather related disasters. The eastern states suffer from a yearly parade of hurricanes. Although the location for landfall tends to move around from year to year, the damage is predictable. Roofs are ripped off, houses flood, power goes out for weeks, and insurance premiums skyrocket as restoration of damaged properties begin. It doesn’t seem to affect the real estate market. People just keep buying. In some cases, commercial real estate moves into locations once populated with homes. California isn’t known for big sea storms, but it certainly has its problems with mudslides and earthquakes. Regardless of the dangerous location, some of the most expensive homes in the United States are located on the coastline. In fact, some of the state’s cities are extremely expensive, too. The high cost of real estate in San Francisco doesn’t seem to be affected by earthquakes.
Rivers
It’s always nice to have a nice location on a river. The problem is flooding. No matter how often it happens, people will just keep buying real estate in flood plains. In some locations, the government will finally condemn the land as inappropriate for construction. You can bet that has to do with insurance lobbyists. This is probably an example of good lobbying because all of our real estate insurance rates go up when certain locations continue to make claims because they live in locations prone to natural disaster.