My path to being the first climate-focused real estate agent began in early 2022 with two milestones: our family began looking for a house and I started writing about climate change. The previous several years had been thick with climate disasters, including Hurricane Ida, which crashed into New York in September 2021. In January 2022, I tried to contextualize Ida’s deluge:

For more than 37 years, from July 1967 through August 2004, the most rain that ever fell in a single hour in Central Park was 1.58 inches. Then in September 2004, 1.76 inches fell in an hour. This record stood until August 21, 2021, when 1.94 inches of rain came down in sixty minutes. The two previous New York City records for rainfall in an hour had lasted for 37 and 17 years, respectively, but this one would last just 11 days. On September 1, 2021, over the course of one hour, Hurricane Ida dropped 3.15 inches of rain on the city. A record broken twice by 0.18 inches was obliterated by 1.21 inches.

This step change in rainfall intensity was on my mind when we started looking for a house a few weeks later. Knowing we needed one that would be rugged in climate disasters but lacking guidance on what to look for, I read voraciously to teach myself to assess the climate resilience of homes. I studied shifts in rainfall patterns due to climate change, I spot-checked climate risk models by looking at ratings of places I know, I reviewed the history and limitations of FEMA flood maps, and much more.

Bit by bit, I came to understand the factors that produce climate vulnerability, and based on that I developed a framework for identifying climate resilient homes. My approach worked and, with help from our agent and attorney, we closed on a great house that summer.

The experience of buying a home in the climate change era stuck with me. The combination of high stakes and a dearth of resources cried out for solutions. Home-buyers need guidance on how to evaluate the climate resilience of prospective homes, and I had developed a framework for doing exactly that. I’d been thinking for a while about a climate change career switch, and supporting home-buyers as a climate-focused real estate agent was a great fit.