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Location: Was Midvalley Oregon; Now Eastside Seattle area
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We have a western coastal home.
A river runs thru the small unincorporated town of a few thousand.
3-100 year floods hit within 5 years. A combination of high tides and snow melt + rain.
FEMA proposal new flood maps that even exceeded these flood markers and literally shut down all home sales (mostly bank owned, foreclosed homes) No one was happy. Our home is on higher elevation-thanks Mom.
FYI, climate is a changing. To the warm and colder extremes. I expect higher ocean levels but in our locale, there is sand buildup and a uplifting of the Northern NorthAmerica plate. We really only have to worry about the tsunami on each uplift .
A few years ago, I asked the resident & senior RE broker about floodplains & FEMA. Looked at me and asked me how long have you been around here?; she knew my Mom. I said +40 years. She looked at me with a look that said, "don't ask stupid questions kid" I am +60. She is +80.
If it concerns you, don't buy in a floodplain, mandatory insurance or not. There is no guarantee that your home won't flood in some natural disaster, designation or not.
FEMA considers it a low risk, which is why they don't mandate flood insurance. Those flood maps will get redrawn because of the way they did drainage in Houston, and a bunch of people will get pulled into the floodplain.
Wouldn't that be considerred moderate? If even the safest locations are considered low? And unfortunately, they don't use that labeling system for each address anymore. A bad hair day for the map person could really cause a wave of property declines.
Wouldn't that be considerred moderate? If even the safest locations are considered low? And unfortunately, they don't use that labeling system for each address anymore. A bad hair day for the map person could really cause a wave of property declines.
No zone=low
.2% shaded =moderate
1% zone=high
And unshaded .2% could be low, but not shaded.
No zone means it hasn't been mapped because FEMA has decided that it doesn't make sense to map it. It doesn't mean that it was mapped and ruled out. It means they didn't look at it.
FEMA is in the process of redoing all sorts of floodplain maps so if you are bothered by it, I would just wait it out and see if they pull this property into the floodplain that requires flood insurance.
the FEMA map linked but be the very most accurate satellite map ever produced. Most I've seen can't be 100% accurate with an overlay (like flood zones, topography, etc). In this case, the property appears to be within 150 ft of the X zone - no flood risk.
It may well be 300 feet in the flood zone, and it could be not in the zone. Only a survey with an elevation certificate would tell you, right?
I would guess most buyers agents will never know it is in the flood plain unless they have sold in the area before and it came up before. That's something that most agents won't keep up with.
I'd be pretty shocked if they knew about municipal liens.
That's a title company job to research title, but good example of why title should be opened early to catch the surprises like this.
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We have a western coastal home. 
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