The recent devastation in historic and beautiful Ellicott City, Maryland has helped to refocus attention locally on issues related to storm water management and the damage water can do. While there remain many skeptics regarding global warming, a growing number of analysts suggest that the economic damage from rising sea levels could be massive.
According to a new report from real estate website Zillow, rising sea levels could cost homeowners nearly nine hundred billion dollars. As reported by Bloomberg, this research takes its initial cue from the journal Nature, which in March determined that sea levels could rise more than six feet by the end of the current century.
Under that scenario, Florida could lose nearly one million homes, or roughly one in eight homes. That translates into a four hundred billion loss, and that figure does not include losses to commercial buildings or public infrastructure.
After Florida, the nine states that stand to lose the most residential real estate value to rising seas are New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts, California, South Carolina, Hawaii, North Carolina, Maryland and Virginia.
