Noted & Quoted: Climate change worries take backseat in hot real estate market

Peter connected recently with Jon Gorey for Jon's Boston Globe Real Estate article Climate change worries take backseat in hot real estate market (original pdf)

Here are a few excerpts:

Raising a flood plain home is another possibility, said Peter MacDonald, vice president of sales and marketing at Murray & MacDonald Insurance Services Inc. in Falmouth. “Along Surf Drive in Falmouth, there are a bunch of houses that were damaged during Hurricane Bob, and they were all rebuilt on pilings. I think that’ll be the new normal a few years from now,’’ he said. It can cost upward of $70,000 to lift a home onto pilings, but if you can elevate the lowest living space above the flood level — including all mechanical systems like boilers, hot water heaters, and air-conditioning units — you’ll no longer need flood coverage, MacDonald said. “It’s going to pay for itself in terms of flood insurance, and it’s going to make the home more marketable because it opens it up to people who need a mortgage.’’

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With all that said, there are still no guarantees, especially on the famously shifting sands of Cape Cod. “Land movement is excluded; earthquake, erosion, that’s not covered on your insurance policy,’’ MacDonald said. “If this stuff happens to you, you’re screwed.’’