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So what's the consensus on houses that are in flood zone areas, but have elevation certificates showing they're okay? Would you buy a house like that? I'm looking at a house in that category now that looks otherwise fantastic for us.
The consensus is that they are asking for trouble and with each passing year and each passing flood, they are harder and harder to resell. If you want to stake your financial and existential life on that because a house is cheap, then you are putting emotion over reason, and that usually doesn't work out well.
Cheap things are cheap for a reason. Cheap houses in or near flood zones in communities where flooding is notorious - Wayne, Lincoln Park, Pompton Lakes, Manville, Fairfield, etc., are a bad deal. Find a better option.
The consensus is that they are asking for trouble and with each passing year and each passing flood, they are harder and harder to resell. If you want to stake your financial and existential life on that because a house is cheap, then you are putting emotion over reason, and that usually doesn't work out well.
Cheap things are cheap for a reason. Cheap houses in or near flood zones in communities where flooding is notorious - Wayne, Lincoln Park, Pompton Lakes, Manville, Fairfield, etc., are a bad deal. Find a better option.
It depends. A house in a flood zone not near the beach, lake or something of use, but just in a dumpy location that happens to be zoned a flood zone will not be a good investment due to the flood insurance
My beach place does not have a water view. But from front lawn you can see board walk and it is like a five minute walk. In that case yes homes have held their value in spite of flood insurance. The benefit of being that close to beach is worth it.
Many folks in NJ inherited or just had little beach houses that were second homes for many years. They could not afford to buy their own home today. Many did not have flood insurance when Sandy hit and a non-primary home was cut off from most FEMA/State/Redcross type help.
Of the folks with insurance. They got paid for repairs but NJ was quick to deem houses Substantially damaged which ment home needed to be raised or town down. NFIP only pays up to 30K ICC money towards that and it often costs 60-120k.
Flood insurance is also a huge issue as folks had mortgages or home equity loans or took an SBA loan after Sandy all that requires flood insurance.
Values were more adversely hit in NJ due to the fact folks did not rebuild quickly. One very small town I wont name at the beach which is very wealthy refused any aid. Did not even apply to state and pretended Sandy never happened. By Memorial Day 2013 homes were all redone, No home was declared damaged, they were all fixed very quickly and village turned a blind eye to repairs. No permits needed. Homes that got hit with 7 feet of water, were quickly fixed and left as is.
Guess what all homes are still pre-firm grandfathered paying low flood insurance. Property values are much higher. Drawing attention to your damage is a doubled edged sword.
For instance my house was fixed extremely quick after Sandy. In the permit waiver period. My annual flood statement says No Flood Claims ever. Yes I never filed a flood claim. When BW was redone folks like me who bought a policy after Sandy got grandfathered back in. So I payy $450 a year full flood and have no recorded flood damage.
Hindsight is 20/20, so not saying the folks who rebuilt as is was smarter. Honestly, it made no sense as since they did not have a flood insurance policy prior to 7-6-2012 BW was going to crush them. They looked stupid not raising, than with the Affordability act all as once it was ok.
Chris Christie promised more than he could deliver and he screwed a lot of folks thinking they would get a ton of aid.
April 1st, 2015 Flood Rates go way up. Love how they do the rate increase on April Fools day
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