| or at the very least, a big part of it - it's a profit culture & the real estate industry owns this county (& many others) if there's money to be made, safety be damned https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/houston-harvey-flood-homes-real-estate-investor-12901718.php Investors large and small are snapping up thousands of properties flooded by Hurricane Harvey. From billion-dollar Wall Street funds to mom-and-pop flippers, they've already purchased at least 5,500 flooded homes, often for dimes on the dollar. In the process, they are transforming some Houston neighborhoods into block after block of rentals. They're interrupting county plans to buy out flood-prone properties. And they're leaning on the taxpayer-funded National Flood Insurance Program to protect them from future floods. "All we're doing is perpetuating a cycle of flooding," said Harris County Flood Control District operations chief Matt Zeve. our home, which amazingly didn't flood in Harvey, has seen it's value sky rocket (sucks for us, since we plan on staying here & our taxes go thru the roof) it's all about taking a profit any way they can - our appraisal district & many others are complicit, but so are many other sectors & the R/E industry as a whole, as well - it will never be taken care of as long as vultures can make a profit & sell flood prone homes to UN-knowledgeable buyers & still be covered by the flood ins program. |