Neither the threat of wildfires nor catastrophic flooding have kept thousands of Americans from migrating to locations in Texas and Florida where extreme weather-related disasters are causing increasing damage year after year.
Between July 2022 and July 2023, nearly 69,000 people bought homes in frequent-flood counties in the Sunshine State — including Brevard, Manatee and Lee — according to a new analysis from Redfin. Another roughly 24,000 Americans became new residents in the heaviest flood-risk areas of Texas during that same time period — including in Brazoria and Fort Bend counties — the online real estate brokerage said.
The inflow of new residents is happening as former residents are fleeing.
“Ballooning insurance costs and intensifying natural disasters are driving thousands of Americans out of risky areas, but those people are quickly being replaced by other people for whom climate change isn’t the top concern,” Redfin Senior Economist Elijah de la Campa said in the report.