Real estate Home Edition
BY MELISSA ENAJE
2025
Readers, welcome to the annual CI Home Edition! Rising costs of flood insurance, higher climate risks and changing expectations are reshaping what it means to live in Houston and Harris County. In this annual home edition, we analyze how the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s recent flood risk rating change affects flood insurance premiums across the region and what that means for high- risk neighborhoods like Bellaire and West University Place. This guide also dives into affordability trends using the latest real estate data and highlights how some residents are turning to a landscape technique called xeriscaping to combat heat and conserve water. A feature on a nonprofit that aids military, first responders and teachers with homeownership costs rounds out this annual special edition.
Premium sponsor:
Cassandra Jenkins Editor cjenkins@ communityimpact.com
Pomona by Hillwood Communities www.pomonabyhillwood.com Award-winning Manvel community on Mustang Bayou offers natural beauty, top-rated schools, and a strong sense of community.
What's inside
Learn more about the usefulness of using native plants (Page 12)
Read about the Hero Benefit Network (Page 13)
See what the median priced home is in Bellaire (Page 17)
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Livability, affordability threatened in Harris County by rising climate risks
Factors such as rising home prices, surging premiums and growing climate risks are reshaping how and where Harris County residents live. Key findings
More than 20% of all county housing units are in one of three major flood areas: floodways, the 100-year floodplain and the 500-year floodplain* 63 of 143 neighborhoods have lost population since 2018 in Greater Houston $15,000 on average is being added to home insurance costs brought upon by extreme weather events
Extreme weather and climate change are seeing ripple effects on neighborhood livability across Harris County, according to a June 17 report by Rice University’s Kinder Institute of Urban Research. Housing experts recommend data-driven infra- structure planning and accurate flood risk mapping to address climate risks across the county. “The risk is going to continue to grow, and it’s really on us to figure out and start to understand what we do with these spaces where we have so much infrastructure and economic investment and development in a place like Houston,” said Jeremy Porter, head of climate implications research at the nonprofit First Street. Porter said his work has translated into actionable insights in the housing space, including adding climate-risk scores to housing search websites so
buyers can understand how much risk could cost in the future. “It’s important for us to start to think about what are the smartest ways we can adapt to the risk we have today. But let’s future-proof it and build for what the climate is going to be like in 30 years,” Porter said. Digging deeper In fact, Harris County lost nearly 80 square miles, or more than 51,000 acres of green space, from 2014 to 2023, to developments, which could lead to more flood and heat risks, officials said. Taking precipi- tation into account is part of calculating flood risks, Porter said. “Climate correcting these authoritative pieces that drive things like infrastructure development, stormwater management, all of the infrastructure
*A 100-YEAR FLOODPLAIN HAS A 1% CHANCE OF BEING FLOODED IN ANY GIVEN YEAR, WHILE A 500-YEAR FLOODPLAIN HAS A 0.2% CHANCE. SOURCE: KINDER INSTITUTE FOR URBAN RESEARCH/COMMUNITY IMPACT
that is put into a city like Houston relies on [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] Atlas 14 precipitation records,” Porter said. “We should be building infrastructure to not only address today’s risk but future risk, so it’s not outdated immediately as we build that.”
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BELLAIRE - MEYERLAND - WEST UNIVERSITY EDITION
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