2010/06/24 by Carolyn Kousky, C. Kousky · 5 citations
Economics, Econometrics and Finance · Environmental Science · #Flood Risk Assessment and Management #Housing Market and Economics #Insurance and Financial Risk Management
paper · doi:10.3368/le.86.3.395
crossref issued 2010/06/24 · crossref published 2010/06/24 · crossref published-online 2010/06/24 · openalex publication_date 2010/06/24 · crossref published-print 2010/08/01 · crossref created 2015/08/07 · crossref deposited 2020/10/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · crossref indexed 2026/07/30 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/30
This paper examines whether a severe flood causes homeowners to update their assessment of flood risk as seen in a change in the price of floodplain property. I use data on all single-family, residential property sales in St. Louis County, Missouri, between 1979 and 2006 in a repeat-sales model and a property fixed-effects model. After the 1993 flood on the Missouri and Mississippi rivers, property prices in 100-year floodplains did not change significantly, but prices in 500-year floodplains declined by between 2% and 5%. All property prices in municipalities located on the rivers fell postflood by 6% to 10%. <i>(JEL Q51, Q54)</i>