Dakota Fisher, an advocate for climate adaptation and health at the Natural Resources Defense Council, sees flood risk disclosures in the home selling process as responsible fiscal policy. A former FEMA employee, Fisher said that if homebuyers know the risks, it allows them to take proactive steps to limit flood damage like elevating their homes or using water-resistant building materials. This protects taxpayers by limiting the need for National Flood Insurance Program payouts, Fisher said.<\/p>\n
He said that, as a taxpayer, he would rather have home buyers know as much as possible about the risk.<\/p>\n
\u201c[So] that individual homeowner buying the dream home along the river \u2026 will make the investments they need to make so that they are not impacted by future extreme weather events, and I am not holding the bag,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Koller, who sees Pennsylvania\u2019s new law as \u201crobust,\u201d said disclosure requirements have their limits. He said a shortage of affordable housing options may push people to purchase homes in flood zones even when they know the risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though you might hope that this disclosure law leads to better decision making across the board, many folks are presumably going to take this into account, but still perhaps purchase a place that has some flood risk because of their limited options in terms of alternative affordable housing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The new law does not require landlords to share flood risk information with renters.<\/p>\n