The new city amenity is extreme-climate safety

The Future. Cities throughout the northern and eastern US — once booming manufacturing centers — are now hawking their ability to be “climate havens” as a way to attract Americans looking for respite from high heat and extreme weather. That’s already inspiring real estate platforms like Redfin to offer climate report cards to homebuyers. The cities with top scores may see a fresh wave of people, investment, and influence if climate-related disasters continue to increase.

Cool streets, hot housing
Insider says cities are vying for the coolest new accolade in town: “best place to ride out dystopia.”

• With extreme weather ramping up in the southern and western US, cities like Buffalo, Cincinnati, Detroit, and Baltimore are marketing their “climate resiliency” to attract people — on top of their cheap housing, good infrastructure, and clean water.
• It’s a smart move considering 14.5 million homes were affected by natural disasters last year… and the weather events that caused more than $1 billion in damage have increased every year over the past decade.
• And regions hitting 120 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer don’t sit well with most Americans who like an average temperature of 65 degrees.

With 8 million Americans moving out of state annually, and a recent USA Today poll finding that 23% of Americans believe they’ll eventually have to move because of climate change, there’s plenty of opportunity for these mid-level cities to pick up a lot of new residents.

For example, if Buffalo captures just one percent of the Americans already moving out of state, it’ll add 80,000 people to a city of 275,000. That’s massive.

And when it comes to high-heat cities like Phoenix, San Antonio, and Miami — they could be in for a literal “urban doom loop” in the coming decade.