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Related: About this forumWhy The U.S. Builds Houses Wrong
Correction (March 18, 2021): At 2:13 this video incorrectly states the number of new housing units in the United States in 2020. The correct number is 1.3 million.
Existing home sales last year reached their highest levels since 2006. However, increasing numbers of climate disasters across the country have sparked concern about how safe homes are.
Potential buyers rarely wonder what the flood plain is here, or do they look around and see this beautiful forest and say, Oh, my God, its going to be on fire in two years? American Institute of Architects consultant David Collins said.
Last year was the worst fire season in U.S. history. In California, five of the states six-largest fires began within a two-month window. Overall, more than a dozen severe weather storms each dealt more than $1 billion in damages across the U.S.
Jack Cohen, a research physical fire scientist, advocates for home construction that better stops the spread of wildfires by including nonflammable construction materials and ensuring nothing exists between houses that an ember can engulf in flames.
We need to define the problem as a structure ignition problem, not a wildfire control problem, Cohen said. His Home Ignition Zone research is supported by the National Fire Protection Association, a part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
FEMA has a financial incentive in protecting Americas homes and encouraging local groups to follow the building codes set by the International Code Council.
Acting U.S. Fire Administration chief Tonya Hoover said the approximately 2,000 communities that have adopted the councils building codes have saved the U.S. an average of $1.6 billion in annualized losses from flooding, hurricanes and earthquakes.
However, building homes that can withstand natural disasters are expensive and keep people, including the more than 500,000 thousand homeless counted in 2019, outside.
A thousand dollars added to the price of a new home, at any time, in any way, ... will eliminate 153,967 households from being able to buy that home, said Greg Ugalde, immediate past chairman of the National Association of Home Builders.
Dawson Leery
(19,348 posts)SWBTATTReg
(22,077 posts)and other such things that are being done. Also, substandard building sites (not a good location for a home) means that more homes are being built in areas where it's not a good idea to build a home in that particular site. The home owners and the developers are at blame here for the most part.
EarnestPutz
(2,117 posts)....to back up what I believe is an idiotic claim.
TreasonousBastard
(43,049 posts)Back when I was in the business, it was said that the entire amount of fire insurance premiums charged in the city for high rises would not pay for one building. Because not one high rise burned down. Sure a few small fires here and there, but nothing major.
So, when the median price for a new home in downstate NY is over $400,000, who the hell is going to piss and moan about a few thousand more for a solid building?
And local codes? Many years ago I remember an apartment complex in North Jersey that caught fire. The complex straddled the border between two towns. Damned if I can remember the names of the towns, but an aerial photo of the complex showed one half totaled and the other almost untouched. Guess which town had the stricter building codes...
Ferrets are Cool
(21,103 posts)only IF they are built to the standards we as Americans have come to expect.
Homes CAN be built to withstand natural disasters AND be inexpensive, but they don't fit our expectations of "keeping up with the Jones's.
marble falls
(57,013 posts)KS Toronado
(17,155 posts)how it had destroyed X number of homes in it's path except one. The owner had installed sprinklers on the
roof and the water was supplied by a gasoline powered water pump that would run 5/6 hours before running
out of gas. When he was allowed back into the burnt forest to check on his property, he found not one tree
on his property left standing unharmed but his house was still standing unharmed. Assume others living
in heavy wooded areas have done something similar.
Crowman2009
(2,490 posts)I like my 20 minute no-interstate commute just fine.