- Nearly 40% of Americans moving say climate concerns have influenced their decision, said Redfin.
- People are leaving states like Arizona and Florida for "climate-proof" places like Duluth, Minnesota.
Floridians Connie and Glenn Faast hit their breaking point one night in a decaying Orlando hotel room, sleeping through 100-degree heat without air conditioning after evacuating their Florida Keys home for Hurricane Irma in 2017.
"That was it for us," Connie told Insider contributor Jake Bittle. When the couple was allowed back to their home in Marathon, they almost immediately listed it for sale and moved to North Carolina.
It was the vicious hurricanes that seemed to worsen every year, the shaky future of the state's housing market, and the daunting prospect of what a warming planet would mean for the coastline that drove them to quit what was once their dream life. The Faasts no longer saw a future in Florida.
We want to hear from you: Have you moved over concerns about the climate crisis? Have wildfires, storms, floods, or other climate-related disasters — or the mere threat of them — driven you from your home? Did higher insurance rates owing to past climate-related events play a role in your decision to get out of town? Tell us in this form how the climate crisis is affecting you and where you live.
Concerns over the Colorado River drying up and the increasing frequency of wildfires drove married couple Charles Matheus and Kelly Roberge to the same conclusion about Arizona that the Faasts had reached about Florida: It was time to move.
"The climate crisis was a big motivator for us to find a place where we could have access to fresh water, that was not going to burn, that was not going to be hit by hurricanes," they told Insider last year. The couple even created a spreadsheet to rank these factors and choose a location projected to be more hospitable in a changing climate.
They landed on Utica, New York, for its friendly community, affordable real estate, and, most importantly, how it's projected to fare with a changing global climate.
An estimated 30 million Americans moved between March 2021 and March 2022, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of the latest available US Census Bureau data.
Reasons for moving are varied and personal for every family, though recently Americans have shared that concerns over a changing climate played a role. Nearly 40% of Americans planning to buy or sell a home in the next year said the risk of natural disasters, extreme temperatures, and rising sea levels influenced their decision to move, according to a 2022 study by real-estate firm Redfin.
Some cities have embraced predictions that they'll become reliable for fresh water and mild temperatures. Buffalo, New York, launched a "Be in Buffalo" campaign last year that touts how "in the not-so-distant future, Buffalo may have the most desirable climate in the United States."
Duluth, Minnesota has embraced its reputation as "climate-proof." But as former Sonoma County, California, resident Doug Kouma told Minnesota Public Radio about moving to Duluth, "you can't totally escape climate change."
But leaving locales with extreme weather behind, right now, is the most approachable option for some. Let us know your take.