Housing & Mortgage
Where to Live If You Want to Dodge Natural Disasters
Many of the safest cities also have affordable housing prices
There’s enough excitement these days without having to survive a natural disaster
— fires in the West, storms in the Gulf Coast and East Coast, and flooding in the Midwest.
If you’re throwing in the towel on a disaster-prone area, or looking to avoid such places in your home search, there are plenty of metro areas that remain safe and affordable. And they’re not concentrated in one region. They include Providence, Rhode Island, and Hartford, Connecticut, in the East; Detroit, Milwaukee and Indianapolis in the Midwest; Las Vegas and Salt Lake City in the West; and Raleigh, North Carolina, and Nashville in the South.
Life is about more than living in a cheap place that doesn’t flood or catch on fire or shake itself to pieces. So I looked at some key quality-of-life measures. How vibrant is the local economy? How many non-stop flights does each place have? Are there major universities in town? That last factor is a key livability data point: College towns tend to have good cultural scenes.
Then I looked at disaster declaration data since 1953 from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to look at five key threats: earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes and tornadoes. (The data was compiled by Redfin.) Half of the safest metro areas on this list also had housing costs below the national average. The most expensive, Salt Lake City, is still far more affordable than high-cost cities in the Northeast and West Coast.
Here are my picks:
Providence, Rhode Island: This former factory town was hit hard by the pandemic shutdown this year, but housing is much cheaper than in Boston, whose airport is close by. Providence is not hurricane-free, but it’s mostly missed by major storms, and dodges most other natural disasters.
Livability:
Median house price: $333,000
Unemployment rate (August 2020): 12.6%
Non-stop flights (Boston): 139
Major colleges: Brown University; Providence College; Roger Williams University
Disaster ratings: (Low numbers are better)
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 0
Tornadoes: 0
Hurricanes: 44
Detroit: The poster child of the post-industrial age has become a hipster mecca because it’s so affordable. Also, it’s surrounded by a bunch of inexpensive suburbs. Unlike the other metro areas on this list, Detroit is big enough to have all four major league sports teams. Parts of Detroit flood, but otherwise it dodges the major disasters.
Livability:
Median house price: $188,000
Unemployment rate: 10.2%
Non-stop flights: 144
Major colleges: University of Detroit; Wayne State University; University of Michigan-Dearborn
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 41
Tornadoes: 0
Hurricanes: 7
Hartford, Connecticut: The insurance capital of the U.S. sits midway between Boston and New York City, yet is far more affordable. The city has had financial troubles. It is surrounded by wealthy suburbs in generally better financial shape. It’s close enough to the coast to still get hit by major hurricanes occasionally.
Livability:
Median house price: $239,000
Unemployment rate: 8%
Number of non-stop flights: 30
Major colleges: University of Hartford; Trinity College
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 12
Tornadoes: 0
Hurricanes: 44
Las Vegas: Sin City is best known for its casinos and risque nightclub acts, but surrounding all that is a rapidly growing Western city of affordable neighborhoods. Its tourist-dependent economy has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic, and it has one of the highest unemployment rates of any major metro area. Las Vegas has a little exposure to wildfires but not much else.
Livability:
Median house price: $297,000
Unemployment rate: 15.5%
Non-stop flights: 144
Major colleges: University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 41
Floods: 12
Tornadoes: 0
Hurricanes: 7
Milwaukee: This city is home to a quiet economic rebound in recent decades, with newer sports facilities and a downtown Riverwalk. It’s home to manufacturers like Johnson Controls and Harley-Davison, and has floods and occasional tornadoes but not much else.
Livability:
Median house price: $141,000
Unemployment rate: 7.4%
Non-stop flights: 31
Major colleges: Marquette University; University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 36
Tornadoes: 26
Hurricanes: 7
Indianapolis: More modern than many other Midwestern cities, today it’s a regional distribution and finance hub. It gets some tornadoes and floods.
Livability:
Median house price: $161,000
Unemployment rate: 6.5%
Non-stop flights: 50
Major colleges: Butler University; Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 18
Tornadoes: 46
Hurricanes: 7
Salt Lake City: This quintessentially modern Western city is a regional hub for distribution and call centers. Sitting in an arid plain, it’s close to skiing and the Rocky Mountains. Salt Lake City gets some fires, floods and tornadoes, but is generally disaster-free
Livability:
Median house price: $405,000
Unemployment rate: 4.7%
Non-stop flights: 105
Major colleges: University of Utah; Brigham Young University
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 32
Floods: 22
Tornadoes: 26
Hurricanes: 0
Raleigh, North Carolina: Raleigh’s growth has been fueled by high tech and biotech, and it boasts more than its share of museums. Even though it’s a two hour-plus trip to the Atlantic, Raleigh still has some hurricane exposure and gets occasional tornadoes.
Livability:
Median house price: $280,000
Unemployment rate: 6.1%
Non-stop flights: 53
Major colleges: North Carolina State University; Duke University (in nearby Durham)
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 0
Tornadoes: 26
Hurricanes: 56
Nashville: This Appalachian city has used low costs and natural beauty to grow rapidly. Though it’s best known as the home of country music, Nashville’s dominant corporate presence is healthcare, including the headquarters of Hospital Corporate of America, and there are many jobs in the field. Some floods and tornadoes but not much else.
Livability:
Median house price: $300,000
Unemployment rate: 8.3%
Non-stop flights: 80
Major colleges: Vanderbilt University; Tennessee State University; Belmont University
Disaster rating:
Earthquakes: 0
Fires: 0
Floods: 29
Tornadoes: 47
Hurricanes: 7