Open Access

Homeowner Willingness to Pay for a Pre-Flood Agreement for a Post-Flood Buyout

Running title: WTP for Post-Flood Buyout Commitment

Amy W Ando and Collin Reeser

Abstract

Homeowner buyout programs promote climate adaptation efforts by removing homes from flood plains. We estimate homeowner willingness to pay (WTP) for a novel agreement in which they pre-commit to relocating if a flood severely damages their home in exchange for an expedited buyout process. We find nearly all respondents identified positive WTP to enroll in this program, with average WTP about $600. Factors like flood risk and expectation of neighbors’ responses significantly affect WTP. If the pre-flood agreement is available only if the homeowner has flood insurance, only 68% of homeowners were willing to accept the agreement.

This open access article is distributed under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0) and is freely available online at: http://le.uwpress.org.