{"id":379415,"date":"2025-05-22T16:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379415"},"modified":"2025-05-22T16:38:18","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:38:18","slug":"cnns-climate-con-how-real-estate-not-storms-drives-insurance-costs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climatescience.press\/?p=379415","title":{"rendered":"CNN\u2019s Climate Con: How Real Estate, Not Storms, Drives Insurance Costs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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From ClimateRealism<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Anthony Watts<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In a recent article, titled \u201cWhy climate risk could affect your credit score for buying a home<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d <\/strong>CNN\u2019s Andrew Freedman describes a new report<\/a> by FirstStreet that claims to show how \u201cclimate risk\u201d could impact credit scores and mortgage lending due to an alleged increase in the frequency and severity of weather-driven mortgage foreclosures. This narrative is highly misleading, if not outright false. The claim that climate risk is a new and emerging driver of credit risk ignores fundamental climatic and economic realities \u2013 namely, extreme weather has not become more common or severe. In addition, the surge in insurance claims in coastal areas is driven by rising population density, development, and escalating property values, not climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CNN and FirstStreet present the concept of \u201cclimate risk\u201d as a quantifiable, standalone factor that can be measured and projected in the same way as credit scores or debt-to-income ratios. But \u201cclimate risk\u201d is a nebulous term, not one scientifically validated or even clearly defined. It conflates weather events with long-term climate trends. Weather is immediate, measurable, and historically recorded \u2013 hurricanes, floods, tornadoes. Climate, on the other hand, is a statistical average of these events over 30 years or more<\/a>. The term \u201cclimate risk\u201d is a misleading invention designed to imply that weather events are becoming more severe or frequent, despite a lack of supporting data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The data on for the severe weather events that cause the most damage do not support FirstStreet\u2019s or CNN\u2019s claims of rising climate change driven costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hurricane Frequency and Intensity:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n