Writer: Jerrica DuBois
2 min read March 2023 — For residents living in a coastal region like South Florida, sea level rise remains an ongoing concern. According to researchers, the more dire effects of rising sea levels may occur sooner than expected and a course correction is needed.
“Your land is going to be taken from you by the rising seas,” said Don Bain, senior adviser at Climate Central in a statement last year to USA Today. “Nobody’s talking about that.”
According to scientists, there was a time when South Florida was at the bottom of a shallow sea. Now, sea levels are rising and even the highest peaks of land in the state could be underwater again. While there is no time stamp, climate change is set to inevitably impact the region’s future, particularly in the realm of real estate.
According to a 2022 report by Climate Central, $34 billion worth of real estate along the U.S. coasts could disappear within 30 years. The forecast is for sea levels to increase 8 inches to 23 inches by 2050. The rising water is also expected to move farther inland, which puts even more real estate in danger of flooding. More than 48,000 properties could be entirely below the high tide lines by 2050, mostly in Louisiana, Florida and Texas.
For Miami-Dade, over 10% of the land in the county is estimated to be impacted by rising seas. That breaks down to over 230,000 acres and nearly $4 million in land value by 2050. More broadley, it is estimated that Florida will have over 140,000 parcels with any area below boundary tidelines by 2050, the most of any state.
“It’s not too late to make course corrections,” Bain added. “Solving this problem is important because it’s a choice between better outcomes and really bad outcomes.”
One issue that rising sea levels have created is climate gentrification, where the wealthy are now looking to move from their beachfront homes to more inland neighborhoods that are at higher altitude with less risk of flooding, such as Little Haiti. In turn, this pushes out the lower income residents who already live in these less expensive areas.
There are those who take the position that the shift being seen is less about sea rise and more about basic economics. According to a statement from Devlin Marinoff, a managing partner at DWNTWN Realty Advisors, “As rents have risen in Wynwood and the Design District, people are running to Little Haiti and Little River to save money.”
This argument is further supported as gentrification in Miami continues to occur throughout the county, not only in higher altitude areas. Take, for example, Miami Beach. With the rise in taxes and housing, lower income residents are being pushed out of this coastal area. The average rent in Miami Beach now sits at over $2,800 per month, which is now $800 more than the national average.
“Everybody needs to understand that we’re all going to be impacted by this,” Yoca Arditi-Rocha, executive director of the CLEO Institute, said in a statement. “Obviously, the most vulnerable are feeling the disproportionate impact, but at the end of the day, we’re all going to feel it.”
