Retirees Are Moving to more Climate Resilient Regions

It’s a small yet noticeable shift, experts say — but climate change is causing retirees to start reconsidering moves to disaster-prone dream locales. More Americans are taking climate change into account when choosing their retirement destinations, Susan B. Garland reports in The New York Times. “Armed with climate studies, many retirees are looking for communities that are less likely to experience extreme weather events, such as wildfires, drought and flooding.” Armed with free data sources such as Climate.gov, ClimateCheck, and Risk Factor, they are calculating risks, budgeting for personal resilience, and paying close attention to local adaptation efforts (such as Asheville, North Carolina’s efforts to reduce wildfire risks). “Do you really want to rebuild at 80?” one person asks? But there are limits to what one person or family can do. With more than 60 million seniors by 2030, America faces a pressing need for new retirement communities and housing. Given this clear signal, property developers need a head start on building tomorrow’s resilient destinations.

Climate Alpha’s analytics suite — including proprietary resilience scores for every county in the country as measured by risk, vulnerability, and readiness — offers developers and investors industrial-strength tools for getting a jump on savvy seniors (and the competition). Reach out to our team to learn about using our AlphaFinder™ to spot high-opportunity locations, and much more.