Picking a Future Home Recognizing Climate Change

At some point we'll want to move, and I want to think through a climate change future.

This is tricky, possibly pointless, because of the unknown-unknowns. And sometimes it feels like "every place will be hopeless" (collapse). But trying not to sink into crazy survivalism.

So I'll try to thread that needle and be pragmatic....

I feel like rural areas are going to be the worst.

But NYC doesn't feel ideal, either.

flooding streets
flooding subways, basements
covid-19/pandemic elevator situation
too many people to bring outside resources to?

So thinking about mid-size city, but not sure about it.

Some criteria at first blush

walkable - hmm is this neighborhood? Whole-city-ratings from WalkScore (also bike and transit ratings)
not south (heat)
not Red (crazy, climate-dismissing)
related: while I'm tired owning, just renting could leave you evicted or priced-out just when things get bad. TinyHouse? Recreational Vehicle?

Going to assemble some articles (saved a bunch Jan20'2024), and try to integrate their inconsistent recommendations.

Feb'2024: Start from list of cities over 100k. https://worldpopulationreview.com/us-cities. Suck them into googlesheet.

Sept'2025: integrate all the sources, some of which turned out to be very crude.

color-coded those ratings, plus some other indicators (density, income, %hh-with2+cars)
finally sorted by the Notre-Dame Risk rating (lowest/best is at top)

I added a column for State-Blueness by taking 2024 Harris-Trump%.

Sources

Edited: 2025-09-21 21:53:48.922997 | Tweet this! | Search Twitter for discussion

Bill Seitz