Humanity was unwilling or unable to do what was needed 30+ years ago to keep the planet cold-ish, and the warmer planet we’re barely starting to get, among many other things, creates:
Bigger and more frequent flooding events as a result of sea level rise.
Bigger and stronger wind events with flying debris and fallen trees.
And unfortunately, we all know wind events like Hurricanes and typhoons can cause flooding above sea level.
Now of course we’re not responsible for earthquakes, tsunamis and volcano eruptions, so we’ll ignore those for this topic.
Insurances will require houses that shrug off flooding and hurricanes if they’re going to insure them.
As far as trees and potential flying debris goes, most of that is somewhat controllable. Just keep the trees small and safe around houses. Remove the dangerous ones, etc. The cost should be very little to do this compared to building ultra-tough housing.
So my question is, as the title suggests: How much do you reckon this will increase the price of building new housing?
I saw a news report about homes that were left undamaged near Tampa. They were two story houses on stilts. At the end the reporter admitted they went for a couple of million dollars.
That would be low compared to the high-end beach houses, but high compared to the single-story houses than run under a half million.
Ballpark, then. Maybe it would double the cost of building and maybe even triple the retail price. That would make Florida unaffordable.
> Various building companies, including Ninebird and North Carolina-based Deltec Homes, have designed structures that can resist high winds and high waters. Three Deltec-built homes were the only ones still standing in Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian devastated the island in 2019.
This New York Times article describes a Florida community called Babcock Ranch, in which the homes are designed to withstand 150 MPH winds and the community has its own solar farm and underground utilities. It’s not a cheap place to live, though.
I remember during a previous hurricane, a news report showed a devastated community with one house still standing. As I remember, the roof was strapped to the side walls and the front door opened out, so that when the wind was pushing at it, it was keeping it closed. So some changes can be made to existing houses.
For the people who don’t want to click through, Jasmine article tell us:
You can purchase a modular hurricane-resistant home, installed on site, for $180,000 to $360,000, depending on size and floor plan. The average cost is around $270,000. …
If you hire a company like Deltec to build a custom home, the price is likely to fall between $175 and $250 per square foot. That’s more than twice the cost to build a conventional home.
The article is almost completely about Deltec homes. It doesn’t good many reasons why we should trust the modular ones.
And Dewey_Finn’s:
While a representative for Babcock Ranch said up to 10 percent of its homes could potentially be set aside for affordable housing, home prices range from almost $300,000 to over $4 million. The average home price in Florida is almost $400,000, according to Zillow.
Companies like Simpson Strong-Tie offer hundreds of different products to strengthen a home. Some can be retrofitted. When I built my 2 story addition I incorporated several of them. The basic idea is to connect everything from the roof all the way down the walls to the foundation. They offer long steel straps that do this, for example. I didn’t do anything that extreme but did install stud wall to rafter connectors and stud to bottom plate connectors. That will help hold the roof on and prevent the entire second story from lifting. We don’t have hurricanes in Ohio but tornadoes are a concern.
I have also built decks that meet the latest codes with 4 foot long bolts that fasten to the deck floor joists and anchor them in through the walls to the floor joists inside the home. If Simpson still offers a printed catalog I recommend it.