BLOOMBERG • December 18, 2023
3.2 million Americans moved away from high-flood-risk areas between 2000 and 2020. The full extent of the migration has been hidden, however, since most people didn’t move far. “There appear to be clear winners and losers in regard to the impact of flood risk on neighborhood-level population change,” Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at First Street, said. “The downstream implications of this are massive and impact property values, neighborhood composition and commercial viability, both positively and negatively.” The analysis also extrapolates these trends 30 years into the future, predicting that vulnerable areas will continue to lose population.