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Thank you for your reply, but I was talking about the SOUTHWEST, not the entire U.S., per the title of the thread.
I am not sure how you came up with 3/4. I have not done an in-depth analysis as far as measurement, but to me, it looks like the high danger area looks to be about half.
Anyway, I doubt if there is any completely safe place to live, but I just wondered why people would move to a place where the second most important ingredient to life (the first being air) might be in very short supply.
Your logic for not living in the SW though is because it is labeled a high risk area, thus meaning you expect 1/2 to 3/4 of the US not to be inhabited as well.
I don't want this to turn into a political thread, but it just baffles me why people continue to buy homes in areas that are in high hazardous zones.
Why do people live in the West, it has drought, fires and earthquakes!
Why do people live in the Midwest, it has tornados!
Why do people live in the South or East Coast, it has floods and hurricanes!
Why do people live in the Northeast, it has blizzards!
People looking in from the outside are only "baffled" because they have no concept of the actual risks of any of these natural events and how to mitigate them.
Why is real estate in metro areas in the southwest continuing to set sales records?
In AZ it's far cheaper than most midwestern and eastern areas that I'm familiar with. Taxes are very low compared to those areas. COL is cheaper too. A high percentage of people moving in have sold their high area priced homes and moved to the desert areas where they can buy a bigger and better house for far less money.
As far as taxes, our relatives in MN their 2000 sq ft house they pay over $4500 in taxes, relatives 2100 sq ft in Chicago suburbs pay over $10,000 in taxes. Our AZ house same size is $2800.
The Southwest covers a large amount of territory, only CA is very expensive, the rest is a bargain.
And BTW the weather is great 9 months out of the year the other 3 months it's warm to hot, but no snow, tornadoes, earthquakes, high humidity in our Phoenix area. Been here 60 years and love it.
Over a 100,000 snowbirds come here every year, must be something worthwhile to it.
The reason houses are so expensive in southern Calif. is because the Democrats make it so expensive and difficult to build houses.
Truth. Republicans wanted to conserve the natural beauty of the state decades ago which is why they put laws to restrict unnecessary development. Now those same laws are being used to punish and obstruct those to get a chance at the American dream of home ownership and personal independence.
I don't think the folks who made this map know about tornadoes and severe storms in OK, MO and AR, or about hurricanes and flooding in TX and LA, or about blizzards across the northern states.
I live in the SW and have only minimal concern about long term water availability, and that mostly 50-100 years into the future. We very rarely have really severe weather. I live in the desert and am not concerned about fires, but those who live in the mountains might be. Yes, we have a drought and do almost every year and then the summer rains come. Then we do that again next year (while the media acts as if it always the first time it happened).
Every place had some concern about something. I suggest people live their lives and stop worrying about everything.
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