8% of housing units in U.S. located in counties at very high risk for natural disasters: report

A recent report that assigns a natural disaster risk score to more than 3,000 county housing markets in the United States found that about 8% of the 131 million U.S. housing units were located in very high-risk counties.

The total number of housing units in the 3,138 counties was 10.6 million, 8% of total U.S. housing units, notes the Natural Disaster Housing Risk Report, released in June by New RealtyTrac, a source for comprehensive housing data in the U.S.

New RealtyTrac reports that of the 3,138 counties analyzed, 373 were classified as very high risk, representing 12% of all counties. That compares to 3.9 million housing units in counties with very low risk (or 3% of the U.S. total).

Scores assigned to each county’s housing market were based on risk data for three natural disaster events — hurricanes, tornados and earthquakes — and each county was assigned to one of five risk categories based on their score: very high risk, high risk, medium risk, low risk, and very low risk.

In all, 1,118 counties fell in the high-risk category, with a combined housing unit total of 61 million; 511 counties fell in the medium-risk category, representing 29.9 million housing units; and 865 counties fell in the low-risk category, representing 25.5 million housing units.

“The potential risk of a natural disaster may not be the first item on most homebuyer checklists for a dream home, but prudent buyers will certainly take this into consideration along with myriad other factors that could affect home value,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, says in the statement.

RealtyTrac reports that among the 34 counties with more than 500,000 housing units, the average median sales price in April 2014 was $268,470 – 56% higher than the national median price of $172,000 in April.

Median home prices in April were up 34% on average compared to five years ago in the counties with a high risk for natural disasters, the statement notes.

“The higher median home prices in many counties with a high risk for natural disaster indicates that other location-based factors such as weather and access to jobs override concerns about home damage as a result of earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes,” Blomquist says.