Risky places to live also have most costly homes

It’s been a bad few weeks for natural disasters. A series of hurricanes ripped through Texas, Florida and the Caribbean, killing hundreds and racking up hundreds of billions of dollars in damage. Wildfires are raging in the western United States, and a pair of powerful earthquakes have battered Mexico.

Amid the terrifying recent events is a worrisome finding from a new report: The parts of the United States most at risk of natural disasters are the places where property values are highest and increasing most quickly.

The data come from Attom Data Solutions’ natural hazard index, which matches geographic areas to government data on risks of flood, earthquake, tornado, wildfire, hurricane and hail.

The riskiest 20 percent of U.S. counties have the most homes, the highest average home values, and the greatest price appreciation in recent years. Why? Buyers who pay premiums for ocean views and mountain lookouts might be getting some additional disaster risk as part of the bargain, said Daren Blomquist, senior vice president at Attom. Those kinds of geographical attributes are likely secondary factors in driving price appreciation, though. More importantly, Attom’s list of disaster-prone areas overlaps with engines of economic activity.

“The primary reason people buy a home somewhere is that there are jobs there,” said Blomquist.

In the aftermath of hurricanes such as Harvey and Irma is a tendency to question the wisdom of building population centers in lowlying areas unequipped to handle flooding caused by those storms. In recent years, however, homebuyers in flood-prone parts of the country appear to be factoring in the risk of such disasters, according to Blomquist.