RealtyTrac’s second annual Manmade Environmental Hazards Housing Risk Report finds 25 million U.S. homes in zip codes that are at high risk or very high risk for manmade environmental hazards – 38 percent of the 64 million homes in all zip codes analyzed.
However, most sections of Florida fall into the very-low, low or medium category for risk based on the prevalence of five manmade environmental hazards: air quality, superfund sites, polluters, brownfields and former drug labs.
For the report, RealtyTrac analyzed 7,751 zip codes with sufficient home price and appreciation data nationwide. In most Florida metro areas, a zip code or two landed in the high or very high category for environmental hazards, but the majority did not.
An overall county-by-county view finds that only four Florida counties are considered high risk – and none are considered very high risk. More than half the state’s acreage at the county level falls into the low or very low categories. RealtyTrac posted a map online showing the county-by-county levels of environmental hazard.
RealtyTrac broke down the zip codes by metro area, and of the 12 major U.S. markets cited by RealtyTrac with “no high-risk zip codes,” three are in Florida: Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Naples and Palm Bay.
“Buying a home in an area with low risk of manmade environmental hazards may not just be a good idea for health and safety reasons; it may also be good for financial reasons,” says Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac. “Across the country, home prices in high risk zip codes were lower on average, and appreciation over the last 10 years slower when compared to home prices and 10-year appreciation in low risk zip codes.”
“Miami is a 21st century city, with most of our development post World War II, with no real environmental baggage from the past,” says Mike Pappas, CEO and president of the Keyes Company, covering the South Florida market, where only 3 percent of zip codes were rated very-high or high risk for manmade environmental hazards. “We have clean air, blue skies, clean water and clean industry.”
No Florida cities appear in RealtyTrac’s “Dirty Dozen” list of top metros with a lot of environmental hazards.
Florida cities rated for environmental hazards by zip code
- Ocala: 11 low-risk zip codes, 2 medium risk; 1 high risk; and 1 very-high risk
- Pensacola-Ferry Pass-Brent: 3 very low; 9 low; 2 medium; and 1 each high and very high
- Deltona-Daytona Beach-Ormond Beach: 17 very low; 3 low; 1 medium; 3 high
- Tampa-St. Petersburg: 90 very low; 16 low; 9 medium; 9 high; 5 very high
- Lakeland-Winter Haven: 11 very low; 9 low; 4 medium; 2 very high
- Jacksonville: 35 very low; 7 low; 1 medium; 2 high; 1 very high
- Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach: 147 very low; 18 low; 4 medium; 4 high; 2 very high
- North Port-Sarasota-Bradenton: 33 very low; 5 low; 1 high
- Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford: 67 very low; 6 low; 1 medium; 1 very high
- Cape Coral-Fort Myers: 27 very low; 4 low; 1 medium
- Naples-Immokalee-Marco Island: 16 very low
- Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville: 19 very low; 5 low
- Port St. Lucie: 15 very low; 1 low; 1 medium
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