Real estate agent focused on climate resilience.
Hi, I’m Ethan Fletcher, the first climate-focused real estate agent. I help clients find, evaluate, and buy climate resilient homes.
For generations, buying a home was a financially safe investment. Today, the combination of high prices and climate-fueled extreme weather has made it a riskier proposition. Some houses are highly climate resilient, others are seriously vulnerable, and many are in between.
High home prices and rising climate risk also change what matters in a real estate agent. Home-buyers today need a realtor who can:
Direct them to the most relevant climate risk information
Offer a framework for evaluating prospective houses
Provide guidance in choosing which homes to make offers on
If you want a realtor who can help you identify and buy a climate resilient home (or sell yours), I’m the person you’re looking for. To reach me, tap the button and send me a quick note.
My primary region as a real estate agent is New York’s Hudson Valley, but I can help you anywhere in the country. This can mean different things depending on your location, goals, and preferences. Reach out and we can discuss.
I worry about climate risk now so you won’t have to later.
When my family began looking for our house in 2022, we knew we needed one that could handle climate extremes but, like all home-buyers, we had no guidance and limited information. Seeing no other option, I read voraciously to teach myself to assess the climate resilience of homes.
I studied shifts in rainfall patterns due to climate change, reviewed the history and limitations of FEMA flood maps, and compared topographical maps to modeled flood risk. I dug into which hazards actually damage homes, scoured websites to understand how to mitigate different threats, learned why flood risk is excluded from home insurance policies, and much more.
The climate resilience framework I developed helped us make a smart decision, and we now enjoy the peace of mind of a climate resilient home.
A few years ago, in explaining the impact climate change will have on homes, I sketched a schematic of the future value of two hypothetical homes, one climate resilient and one climate vulnerable. This simple graph reveals the high stakes of choosing which home to buy in the climate era.
Climate resilient homes provide physical and financial safety so you and your family can flourish. As extreme weather worsens in the years ahead, a home’s resilience will become a larger component of its desirability. As a result, the value of climate resilient homes will rise while the value of climate vulnerable homes will fall.
If you want a realtor who can help you navigate the tricky, rapidly shifting terrain of today’s housing market, please reach out.
In the climate change era your house is like a ship on stormy seas. Make sure it's fit for the voyage ahead.
Home-buyers aren’t the only ones who need to evaluate climate resilience, homeowners do, too. In addition to being a real estate agent, I offer Climate Resilience Assessments to help current owners understand their homes’ vulnerability. Details on this service are here.
I’m a licensed real estate salesperson at Ally Realty in New York’s Hudson Valley.
Learn more about how climate change is transforming housing markets from my newsletter, Climate Change and Your Home.
New York’s Fair Housing and Anti-Discrimination notice, the principles of which I’m deeply committed to, can be found here.