Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Lifestyle

Climate House Hunting: Local Heroes

The week’s buzziest real estate listings, ranked by climate risk.

Aaron Rodgers.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Glued to real estate posts on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Dwell, or Architectural Digest and wondering how those gorgeous homes will hold up in the next decades? I have you covered.

Heatmap has partnered with my new climate risk platform, Habitable. Every Friday, we add a climate risk score to the real estate listings featured in the news this week and ask: Could you live here as the climate changes?

Using a model developed by a team of Berkeley data scientists at Climate Check, Habitable scores each property for heat, flood, drought, and fire risk on a scale of 1-10. One represents the lowest risk and 10 is the highest. Our rating for each hazard is based on climate change projections through 2050. (You can check your own home’s climate risk here.)

For today’s edition, I apply the Habitable Index to check the climate risk of houses that are local heroes — star listings in locations on the outskirts of major cities. What’s interesting is that across the country buyers are still spending big for risky properties although there are some surprises and exceptions.

1. New Jersey

Aaron Rodgers' home in Montclair, New Jersey \u2014\u00a0a white, modern two-story home with windows across the front.Redfin

Controversial quarterback Aaron Rodgers will have nothing to get riled up about in his new Montclair, New Jersey, home during his first season with the New York Jets. The brand new house listed for $11 million (he bought it for $9.5 million) has an overall low climate risk with nothing to worry about besides moderate drought and heat.

Featured in The Daily Mail and sold for $9,500,000

2. Savannah

A two-story, red-brick townhome.Seabolt

The newly renovated childhood home of U.S. Poet Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author Conrad Aiken in a historic Savannah neighborhood is picture perfect and recently listed for $4.9 million. Brand new interior upgrades highlight the historic details. The climate risk is focused on the high heat typical to southern Georgia, which is not bad, all things considered.

Featured inWSJ and listed for $4,900,000

3. Alabama

An expansive stone and wood home in a lush compound.Redfin/ValleyMLS.com

A gated compound on 200 secluded acres in Alabama was the highest price listing in Alabama this month. While it would seem habitable, based on the minimal drought and fire risk, the place will be hot. Still, there are few pictures of the inside of this house, so it’s hard to say how actually Habitable it is for $12 million.

Featured in Home Stratosphere and listed for $12,300,000

4. Minnesota

A three-story home on a narrow private island in the middle of a lake lined with trees.Spacecrafting

This house and location is spectacular! On a private peninsula on Lake Minnetonka in Minnesota, there are views from every room in the house and also from the lighthouse.

But habitable it is not. Not only will the long private driveway leading to the beautiful stone home likely be underwater, it’s probable the multiple decks, porches, and patios that maximize outdoor living will be too.

Featured on CBS News and listed for $14,750,000


5. Connecticut

A light-colored, expansive three-story house behind a well-manicured lawn.Zillow

A record-breaking sale makes Copper Beech Farm in Greenwich the most expensive home ever sold in Connecticut. On 50 acres, the land includes a mile of uninterrupted beach on the Long Island Sound. The historic mansion has nine fireplaces and gorgeous old trees which may contribute to the low heat risk. But with a 9/10 extreme risk for flooding, it’s a high price to pay.

Featured in the New York Postand sold for $138,000,000.

6. Texas

A wide, two-story stone house behind a gravel driveway and a tree.Carol Wood Partners

Texas’ highest priced residential home was just listed outside Houston for $65 million. "The Lodge in Hunters Creek" is Texas-sized (22,000 square feet) and includes a personal 24-hour guard house. I have to admit, the house and the setting and landscaping is stunning. But gosh that is a lot of money to pay to live with the most extreme heat and flood risk with a little drought and fire risk thrown in.

Featured on Fox Business and listed for $65 million.

Green

You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Q&A

You, Too, Can Protect Solar Panels Against Hail

A conversation with VDE Americas CEO Brian Grenko.

This week's interview subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s Q&A is about hail. Last week, we explained how and why hail storm damage in Texas may have helped galvanize opposition to renewable energy there. So I decided to reach out to Brian Grenko, CEO of renewables engineering advisory firm VDE Americas, to talk about how developers can make sure their projects are not only resistant to hail but also prevent that sort of pushback.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Hotspots

The Pro-Renewables Crowd Gets Riled Up

And more of the week’s big fights around renewable energy.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Long Island, New York – We saw the face of the resistance to the war on renewable energy in the Big Apple this week, as protestors rallied in support of offshore wind for a change.

  • Activists came together on Earth Day to protest the Trump administration’s decision to issue a stop work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind project. It’s the most notable rally for offshore wind I’ve seen since September, when wind advocates protested offshore opponents at the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island.
  • Esther Rosario, executive director of Climate Jobs New York, told me the rally was intended to focus on the jobs that will be impacted by halting construction and that about a hundred people were at the rally – “a good half of them” union members or representing their unions.
  • “I think it’s important that the elected officials that are in both the area and at the federal level understand the humans behind what it means to issue a stop-work order,” she said.

2. Elsewhere on Long Island – The city of Glen Cove is on the verge of being the next New York City-area community with a battery storage ban, discussing this week whether to ban BESS for at least one year amid fire fears.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Spotlight

How a Carbon Pipeline Is Turning Iowa Against Wind

Long Islanders, meanwhile, are showing up in support of offshore wind, and more in this week’s edition of The Fight.

Iowa.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Library of Congress

Local renewables restrictions are on the rise in the Hawkeye State – and it might have something to do with carbon pipelines.

Iowa’s known as a renewables growth area, producing more wind energy than any other state and offering ample acreage for utility-scale solar development. This has happened despite the fact that Iowa, like Ohio, is home to many large agricultural facilities – a trait that has often fomented conflict over specific projects. Iowa has defied this logic in part because the state was very early to renewables, enacting a state portfolio standard in 1983, signed into law by a Republican governor.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow