In 2018 Robin Dillon-Merrill and her colleagues looked at the impact of different types of natural disasters on US real estate markets. They found that, relative to places not hit by earthquakes, floods or tornados, natural disasters tended to permanently increase housing rents. House prices could go either way.  Poorer homeowners were much more likely to become renters after a flood if their house was uninsured. Homeownership rates went down in general, but wealthy households expanded their housing holdings. In the US, the most recent data show new home sales have increased in May, as has new activity in starter…