Florida mansion becomes state's most expensive home ever sold despite imminent threat of destruction: 'A 99.9% risk'

A sprawling waterfront property in Naples, Florida, was recently christened the most expensive home ever sold in the state — and while it's situated in an exclusive area the Naples Daily News called "a playground for the rich," the compound came with a huge caveat in the form of an extreme flood risk. 

What's happening?

The Wall Street Journal first reported the real estate sale — of a parcel of land with three separate homes — noting that the property also fetched the "second-highest home-sale price in U.S. history."

Though the newsworthy deal attracted high-profile news coverage focused largely on its price tag, Realtor.com addressed the shockingly high risk of catastrophic flooding.

The news and sales hub referenced its own internal climate risk rating in its coverage of the sale, noting that the compound "has a 99.9% risk of flooding over 30 years." Moreover, it indicated that the parcel's "risk of flood is increasing as weather patterns change," citing sea level rise and hurricane storm surge as contributing factors.

Coastal communities have historically absorbed an inherent level of flood risk — but the human-driven changing climate has drastically accelerated the rate and severity of both rising sea levels and extreme weather events.

Why is coastal flood risk concerning?

Climate tech investor and journalist Molly Wood has likened the relationship between human-influenced sea level rise and supercharged weather — both amplified by an overreliance on dirty energy — to the effects of steroids on professional sports. 

Wood explained that "whatever was already going to happen, like droughts, floods, fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, heat waves, snowstorms, rain" will still occur. However, she cautioned that "when it happens, it's going to be worse" and that "extreme versions of what used to be normal weather are going to happen more often."

The impact of extreme weather events isn't limited to the aftermath of floods and hurricanes, either. As access to affordable housing continues to wane, several Southern states — Florida among them — have had home insurance providers abruptly pull back or withdraw from areas deemed high risks for supercharged weather crises. 

What can coastal communities do about increasing flood risks?

It's not just homebuyers contending with elevated flood risks — census data from 2019 indicated that 29% of Americans live near coastlines, and many are contending with supercharged weather events.

In other words, coastal communities and their residents are experiencing a novel and changing problem that affects their lives and livelihoods, and it's not feasible for everyone to move inland.

Residents of Stonington, an island community in Maine, are approaching the issue collectively, raising wharves and docks to combat rising waters. Stonington also invested in a resiliency fund to aid working-class residents, a group disproportionately affected by sudden and extreme weather events.

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On the West Coast, officials in Northern California's Marin County have undertaken similar efforts to obtain and earmark funds for residents in areas identified as exceptionally vulnerable.

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