Sign In or Create an Account.

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

Lifestyle

How Will These Stone Houses Fare In a Warming World?

This week's hottest real estate listings, ranked by climate risk

A stone house and sun.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Glued to real estate posts on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Dwell, Spaces, The Modern House, 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 understand the climate risk of the many castles or homes built from stone, including an actual rock house in Palm Springs.

1. ‘I had a castle in Buffalo ...’

Historical castle home in Buffalo, NYZillow

A Castle in Buffalo, New York? Dream or your worst nightmare? This historic family home built in 1880 with five bedrooms and five baths is for sale in climate-safe Buffalo (must love snow). The Castle at Mayfair Lane comes with requisite stone and brick everywhere, cannons (yes!) and carved Gothic ceiling brackets. It’s probably filled with ghosts, but even so, the house will be around for hundreds more years and the climate risk is so low. Unfortunately there’s no moat, but still it’s very safe.

Featured @zillowgonewild and listed for $1,500,000.


2. Charles Schulz did not go wrong.

Charles Schulz\u2019s among ponds and redwoodsZillow

Peanuts-creator Charles Schulz’s California home went up for sale this week. Sculpted into rocks with rock walls and fireplaces and landscaped among towering redwoods, it contains many references to our most beloved characters. Yes, there are tranquil ponds, but there are also benches with carved images of Snoopy. The property features a four-hole golf course that, like the house, is fortunately free of climate risk.

Featured in NYPost and listed for $3,950,000.


3. The Astor family castle is climate friendly.

New Jersey estate on 32 acres

In Bernardsville, New Jersey, this stone-clad estate on 32 acres is castle-like but the wraparound porch makes it more of a liveable family home. There is minimal climate risk and the place is build like a fort — definitely keeping out the heat.

Featured on Mansion Global and listed for $13, 750,000.


4. School’s out in Pennsylvania.

Previously Franklin Public School in Pennsylvania until 1970Fox & Roach Realtors

This stone building was the Franklin Public School and library in Honeybrook, Pennsylvania, until 1970. The castle-like building has 10-foot ceilings and will need some renovating to make it a home, but it’s got a great future. No flood, barely a fire risk. Some risk for drought and a high heat risk, but the stone structure keeps the inside cool and habitable.

Featured in Circa Save This House and listed for $398,000.


5. Flip this castle?

Waco, Texas castle featured on show "Fixer Upper"Lisa Petrol/Concierge Auctions

This “probably-haunted” castle in Waco, Texas, was recently renovated by Chip and Joanna Gaines and documented in six episodes on their show Fixer Upper: The Castle.

The Gaineses purchased the Waco castle in 2019 and gave it a top-to-bottom face-lift. It will sell at auction later this month. Unfortunately the heat risk for this Waco gem is 10/10. And the high risk of drought makes this place not very habitable.

Featured on @WSJrealestate. Auction bidding opens July 20, 2023.


6. Between a rock and a hard place

Rock House in San Jacinto built by Bank of America foundersPatrick Stewart Properties

In 1926, five rock homes were built in Araby Cove, the first and oldest subdivision in Palm Springs. The Giannini Family, who founded Bank of America built and owned this Rock House which sits at the bottom of a rockface in the San Jacinto mountains, 10 minutes outside Palm Springs. You are literally surrounded by stones: Inside, outside, all around you everywhere you look STONES! While the good news is that the house won’t flood, the drought, heat and fire risk is high.

Featured in Mansion Global and listed for $2,495,000.

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
Energy

NOAA Hired an Anti-Wind Activist as Its Top Lawyer

Anne Hawkins, formerly of the Responsible Offshore Development Alliance, has been quietly added to the agency’s roster, Heatmap has learned.

Offshore wind.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has hired a new general counsel who was, until recently, pursuing legal challenges to offshore wind farms on behalf of the fishing industry, Heatmap has learned.

NOAA’s Fisheries division, also known as the National Marine Fisheries Service, regulates species protection within U.S. waters. Activists have sought to persuade the Trump administration to review the division’s previous and future approvals for offshore wind projects that interact with endangered marine life, which would be a huge win for the “wind kills whales” movement.

Keep reading...Show less
Climate Tech

The Nuclear Industry Loves This Geothermal Startup

In a Heatmap exclusive, XGS Energy is announcing a new $13 million funding round.

Geothermal and nuclear power.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Mano Nazar spent nearly 40 years working in the atomic energy industry — first at Duke Energy, then at American Electric Power before his capstone years as the chief nuclear officer at NextEra.

Now a semi-retired investor, he’s turning his attention to a resource he thinks can help meet the surging electricity demand the slow-growing reactor business is struggling to supply: geothermal.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Climate

AM Briefing: South Korea’s Deadly Fires

On deadly blazes, China’s carbon market, and the goal of tripling renewables

South Korea Is Grappling With Devastating Wildfires
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Phoenix saw record high temperatures on Tuesday for the second day in a row • A freak hail storm turned a city in the south of Spain into a winter wonderland • Widespread bleaching has been recorded at Australia’s two World Heritage-listed coral reefs after an intense marine heatwave.

THE TOP FIVE

1. South Korea grapples with worst wildfires in years

At least 24 people have been killed and more than 27,000 evacuated in South Korea as the country faces some of its worst wildfires in history. Some 200 buildings have been damaged, including two ancient Buddhist temples. The blazes broke out on Friday in the country’s southeast and have spread rapidly in the days since, fueled by high winds and dry weather. Lee Byung-doo, a forest disaster expert at the National Institute of Forest Science, toldReuters that climate change was driving more frequent wildfires across the globe. “We have to admit large-scale wildfires are going to increase and for that we need more resources and trained manpower,” he said. Indeed, a rapid analysis from European researchers concluded that recent wildfires in Japan and South Korea “have been fueled by meteorological conditions likely strengthened by human-driven climate change.” More than 10,000 firefighters and at least 87 helicopters have been deployed to bring the fires under control. The largest is about 70% contained.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow