Quantifying the Impact of Remapping Floodplains on Residential Property Values in Snohomish County, Washington: A Hedonic Approach

<p>Flood events are the most common and costly natural disasters. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) quantifies flood risks in the form of Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMS). These FIRMS delineate flood risks and are used to set flood insurance premiums. Changes in land use, the augmentation of the natural environment, is threatening the validity of the Nation’s FIRMS. Therefore, Congress has approved remapping programs to update these FIRMs ensuring that current flood risks are known. This remapping presents another issue, specifically for properties that are remapped into a flood zone. Current literature suggests that properties within flood zones are discounted 5-13% compared to homes outside a flood zone. Therefore, the switching of flood zone status should negatively impact property values. To explore how the switching of flood zone status, as indicated by the remapping of FIRMs, impacts property values, a fixed effects hedonic pricing model will be estimated. We look to add to the limited literature related to revealing the impact of switching flood zone status through time and expand upon it by investigating consumer behavior towards the release of updated preliminary flood zones. Results suggest that properties who are remapped into a flood zone are initially valued higher during the release year, but one year after the remapping their prices converge with properties who have always been within a flood zone.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Science (MS)

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Cultural and Environmental Resource Management

Year dc:date.available

2021

Author dc:creator

• Risner, Carson Joseph

Contributors dc:contributor

• Charles Wassell
• Sterling Quinn
• Toni Sipic

• Hedonic
• Floodplains
• Remapping
• FEMA
• Natural Resources
• Environmental Studies
• Geographic Information Sciences
• Other Economics

Repository record dc:identifier

https://digitalcommons.cwu.edu/etd/1509

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:digitalcommons.cwu.edu:etd-2534