RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Who Has the Upper HAND in a Hurricane?
JF Land Economics
JO Land Econ
FD University of Wisconsin Press
SP 012425-0003R1
DO 10.3368/le.103.1.012425-0003R1
A1 Plough, Julian A.
A1 Olmstead, Sheila M.
A1 Wrenn, Douglas H.
YR 2026
UL http://le.uwpress.org/content/early/2026/07/16/le.103.1.012425-0003R1.abstract
AB Flood risk is increasing in the United States, but how property markets respond to this hazard is unclear. Focusing on Houston, Texas, we analyze changes in flood risk capitalization in property prices after three major Gulf Coast hurricanes. We compare two measures of flood risk–floodplain designations from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and a hydrologically-imputed, continuous measure, Height Above the Nearest Drainage (HAND). HAND affects property prices after a storm in intuitive ways, while we observe counterintuitive post-storm price premiums within FEMA floodplains. Plausibly exogenous measures like HAND may be useful tools for characterizing flood risk in economic analyses.