Rising waters due to climate change are recalculating Miami housing values – and many communities around it – as homes closer to the sea, once seen as treasured property, are being discounted in favor of those on higher land, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Research posted in the journal Environmental Research Letters found that the values of single-family homes in Miami-Dade County near sea level are rising slower than those at higher elevations, the Journal wrote.
The research journal addressed such shifts in housing in what it called "climate gentrification."
"This article has demonstrated that the elevation of one's home in (Miami-Dade County) could matter in terms of long-term price appreciation," the study said. "The findings would suggest that a consumer preference may exist in favor of higher elevation properties.
"Likewise, lower elevation properties may be subject to lower rates of appreciation due to flooding concerns. In light of accelerated (sea level rising), these preferences may become more robust and may lead to more widespread relocations that serve to gentrify higher elevation communities," the study continued.
Ross Hancock told Bloomberg last December that he was selling a small condo on Biscayne Bay, on top of the highest coral ridges in the area because of threat of rising tides after Hurricane Irma made him realize he was not completely out of harm's way, but had no buyers.
According to a working paper on the Social Science Research Network, researchers at the University of Colorado and Penn State also found that homes exposed to sea-level rise were selling at a 7 percent discount compared to homes that did not face such exposure.
"This discount has grown over time, and is driven by sophisticated buyers and communities worried about global warming," the paper's authors wrote, per Bloomberg.
Jim Cason, the former mayor of Coral Gables, told Bloomberg he had be sounding the alarm on the impact of rising sea levels on the local housing market since he took office in 2011. He said at December's gathering of South Florida elected officials in Fort Lauderdale that Hurricane Irma changed the minds of many people, Bloomberg noted.
"The hurricane certainly added to that concern," Cason told Bloomberg. "That's why so many people are at this conference. They just saw it."
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.