Source: WIRED
The traditional wealth-building logic of American homeownership—buy property, ride appreciation, build equity—collapses when climate risk makes that asset uninsurable or unmortgageable. As insurers withdraw from high-risk regions and lenders tighten standards, homeowners discover their single largest investment is becoming illiquid and unmarketable, trapping capital rather than freeing it. This breaks a foundational promise of middle-class stability and forces a reckoning about who can afford to own property in physically stable places.