'Climate Gentrification' Will Displace One Million People in Miami Alone

[sl8]

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-gentrification-will-displace-one-million-people-in-miami-alone/

‘Climate Gentrification’ Will Displace One Million People in Miami Alone

More than half of Miami-Dade County residents will face pressure to move as rising seas push residents inland to reach higher ground, a new study finds

By Minho Kim, E&E News on October 17, 2023

CLIMATEWIRE | More than half of the 2.6 million residents in the Miami area will experience “climate gentrification” and pressure to relocate if sea levels rise by 40 inches, according to a study published Monday.

Rising oceans will push many coastal residents inland, where they will force an increase in housing costs that could displace as many as 56 percent of households in Miami-Dade County, according to the study published in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

“Markets are aligning with the idea that there is a higher flood risk in these lower lying areas,” Nadia Seeteram, the lead author of the study and a researcher at the Columbia Climate School, said in an interview. “The areas that happened to be gentrifying also happened to be among some of the higher-elevated areas” and that are “homes to historically marginalized communities.”

In Miami-Dade, many minority neighborhoods with lower income levels sit higher than rich beachfront areas. Miami’s famous Little Haiti neighborhood, which is 10 feet above sea level and where nearly half the residents live below the poverty line, has experienced a recent surge in development and property values, raising concerns about displacement.

[...]

[Think. Again.]

1. Just the beginning.

[DFW]

2. What an irony that would turn out to be

All those gazillion dollar megavillas on the water suddenly uninhabitable and worthless, and all the high ground, shunned and ignored by the villas’ owners, is suddenly Miami’s hottest real estate. How ironic it would be to have some previously impoverished Haitians returning home as millionaires, because the villa owners offered them fortunes for their previously undesirable land.

The more likely scenario will be that most of the Haitians will get screwed, and paid a tiny fraction of what their Miami homes are worth. Still, a few clever ones will be sure to figure out what is going on, and cash in.

I don’t think there is time (or the will) to design and carry out the expensive and sophisticated construction work that would be necessary to coastal Miami into an American Venice. Too bad no one thought of that fifty years ago.

[Backseat Driver]

5. Shhhh...full stop DFW - those ironic predictions already seem a reality in safer climate locations

when one looks at the cost of offered "new builds," some of which are billed for downsizers here in what is more commonly thought of as being landlocked in the rustbelt. Urban sprawl and post-war builds are unfortunately still subject to areal and flash flooding alerts. Big pocket corporate owners scoop up those units in "cash" against the day for rehab and rentals. Anyone can lurk here; don't want to give them ideas legacy developers must have already intuited...OTOH, let's just say it's been a good thing then that I've enjoyed living in POC-diverse neighborhoods, studied Spanish in HS so long ago, and have always owned or rented places sort of halfway, at least, "up the hill" at the edges of the coal fields. Climate changes of all sorts have or will eventually impact us all - those that were prepared well; those who needed to chase jobs and/or housing into their old age. What wise choices would you recommend? I'm definitely not wealthy enough nor young enough to be a rapid or early adapter...

[mitch96]

3. After living down there for many decades I believe it will be insurance driven exit.

When (not if) insurance companies stop writing policies in Miami the exodus will happen.
No insurance, no loans. No loans no purchase so people will go where the insurance companies will insure..for now..
It's already starting. People are seeing insurance doubling from last year on both coasts and are leaving..
It's gonna be like playing musical chairs. Who is gonna be stuck with what was waterfront property that is now under water?.
YMMV
m

https://www.democraticunderground.com/1127169622

[OnlinePoker]

4. During the last interglaciation, sea levels were 6-9 meters higher than they are now

The temperatures were indistinguishable from the 1995-2014 mean.

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aai8464

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The fantasy of keeping temperatures below a 1.5c rise to avoid the worst climate issues has long past.