Roughly 80,000 Louisiana homes would be lost if sea levels rise by six feet as scientists expect by the year 2100, according to a new analysis from Zillow, a Seattle-based online real estate marketplace.
The homes have a total value of $13.2 billion and represent roughly 6% of the state’s housing stock.
According to a news release, Zillow says it performed the analysis after the scientific journal Nature published the results of new research that says melting Antarctic ice sheets could cause sea levels to rise six feet by 2100.
“This new estimate nearly doubles previous expectations for rising oceans,” Zillow says in a statement, adding that it relied on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data to make its prediction.
Nationally, two million homes with a cumulative value of $882 billion could be lost, the company says.
“It’s easy to think about how the ocean levels can affect the coasts in an abstract sense, but this analysis shows the real impact it will have on nearly two million homeowners—and most likely more by the time we reach 2100—who could lose their homes,” Zillow chief economist Svenja Gudell in a statement.
More than half of all U.S. homes that would be lost are located in Florida, where Zillow predicts one in eight homes are at risk of going underwater.
The state counts for nearly half of the country’s lost housing value.
