Residents Weigh Post-Sandy Buyouts
Thousands of people whose homes were destroyed by superstorm Sandy a year ago are considering abandoning the New York and New Jersey waterfront, with entire neighborhoods set to vanish after their properties are sold to the government.
The wrenching decisions are being made as flood-insurance rates eventually could rise by as much as 500% for some under a federal law passed in May 2012, which has pushed more homeowners across the country to consider selling their floodplain homes to state or local governments rather than pay the higher insurance rates. In most cases, states buy the homeowners out, then raze the homes and replace them with parkland in order to remove the threat of property damage and human injury from a flood-prone area.
About 2,000 properties in more than a dozen communities in New York and New Jersey have been deemed eligible for state or city buyouts after Sandy. Officials in Louisiana and Florida said they have also seen increases in homeowners seeking buyouts this year, attributing the interest to increasing flood-insurance rates. Susan Rees, who manages the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program, a joint state and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers effort to make the coastline more resilient after 2005's Hurricane Katrina, said she has received a surge in calls from people interested in selling their home on the water.
In the New York City area, many of the waterfront neighborhoods hit hard by Sandy are working-class, densely packed enclaves where bungalows are passed down through the generations. In some cases, entire communities are making a collective decision that it is time to go, as states or municipalities generally require that everyone in a neighborhood agree to take buyouts, fearing that otherwise areas will be littered with abandoned lots.
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In nearby Oakwood Beach, a Staten Island community that was overwhelmed with floodwaters during the Oct. 29, 2012, storm, 300 homeowners have been offered state buyouts, and 298 have submitted applications. Using part of the $60 billion federal aid package for Sandy, New York state offered Oakwood Beach residents the prestorm value of their home, plus a 10% bonus for reaching consensus and 5% to stay in the city. The average buyout is about $350,000 to $400,000, costing a total of about $160 million in Oakwood Beach.
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