Look at the Zillow website and the online article on Zillow\'s business model, a

Question

Look at the Zillow website and the online article on Zillow's business model, and watch the short video on the first ten years of Zillow. (You should also look at the Zillow YouTube channel.) Based on your reading and viewing, discuss/debate how Zillow has used Web 1.0 and/or Web 2.0 technology to transform the real estate industry.

https://www.youtube.com/user/zillownews

http://www.zillow.com/

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/110615/why-zillow-free-and-how-it-makes-money.asp

Explanation / Answer

Despite record-warm years and some crops already reacting to unusual shifts in the weather, climate change for many people remains an issue for the future. That future came a little closer this year, when scientists studying Antarctic ice loss reported that if carbon emissions continue unabated, sea levels could rise six feet this century — significantly higher than previous predictions of a two-foot rise by the year 2100.

If the oceans rose six feet today, 1.87 million homes in the United States valued at $882 billion would be flooded by sea water, according to a Zillow Research analysis using data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Roughly half of them — 934,411 homes, worth $413 million — are in Florida.

Doug Aschenbach, a retiree from Ohio who lives in a Fort Lauderdale high-rise, figures it would take fewer than six feet of water to have a significant impact in his area. Indeed, Zillow’s analysis shows Fort Lauderdale is the U.S. city that would have the most homes under water — more than 38,000 — if the ocean rose six feet.

“On the one hand, I joke that I’m on the 16th floor, so I’ll be okay,” he said. “But on the other, our building has an underground parking garage right on the beach, so there are infrastructure issues.”

Underwater Homes_UWH - Blog (1)

Aschenbach is heartened that these predictions are for decades into the future. “As long as city officials and others are thinking about them now, I view that as a good sign, because it will happen so gradually that there could be solutions to prevent a catastrophe.”

Cities get ready

Some areas are preparing in a big way. Miami Beach, where nearly 37,500 homes would be affected, plans to spend a half-billion dollars over the next several years to install pumps and raise roads and sea walls. So-called “king tides” already are causing more damage there than they used to, The Miami Herald reported.

In New York City, almost 32,000 homes would take on water with a six-foot rise. Climate science “fundamentally calls into question New York’s existence,” a former head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey told Rolling Stone.

The city plans to break ground next year on a barrier system (known as “the Big U”) meant to protect lower Manhattan. It will start with “an undulating 10-foot-high steel-and-concrete-reinforced berm” running about two miles along the East River.

That sort of wall suits Manhattan, which is built on granite bedrock, said climate impact scientist Benjamin Strauss at Climate Central, a nonprofit news organization that reports on climate science. (Its online Surging Seas Risk Finder shows what effect rising waters will have on U.S. coastlines. By plugging in cities and postal codes, people can gauge which areas would be soaked at various water levels.)

Despite the risks, Strauss thinks “Manhattan will be with us for a long time. There are so many assets concentrated in such a small area that I’m sure people will invest heavily to protect it.”

South Florida might not be so fortunate, because its bedrock is porous. If sea levels permanently rose six feet or more, water would push through the rock like a sponge, Strauss said. “You can’t build a wall across the top of a sponge and keep water from getting from one side to the other.”

That makes it likely, Strauss said, that a lot of people will have to leave southern Florida. He recently told the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that high-end projections for this century would turn Miami-Dade County into a “collection of islands.”

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