{"id":10153,"date":"2026-11-07T10:08:35","date_gmt":"2026-11-07T10:08:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=10153"},"modified":"2026-11-07T10:08:35","modified_gmt":"2026-11-07T10:08:35","slug":"the-american-dream-wasnt-built-for-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=10153","title":{"rendered":"The American Dream Wasn\u2019t Built for Climate Change"},"content":{"rendered":"


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This story originally<\/span> appeared on Grist<\/a> and is part of the Climate Desk<\/a> collaboration.<\/em><\/p>\n

To Sierra Isley,<\/span> the American Dream brings to mind a home ringed by a white picket fence. \u201cThe house in the suburbs<\/a> is just what you\u2019re taught growing up,\u201d the 26-year-old said. \u201cYou know, that\u2019s what you see on TV.\u201d What she wanted for her life was a bit different from that picket-fence ideal, but she still saw the prospect of buying her first house<\/a> two years ago as a chance to live out what she called \u201cthat big dream that everybody has as a kid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Isley and her girlfriend, Jamie, were moving from Philadelphia to Asheville, North Carolina, and found a home they liked, a three-bedroom brick house with lots of natural light and a big tree<\/a> out front. With some help from their parents, they put down a deposit and got their offer accepted. But when they went to sign the closing papers, a complication got in the way: The house had a huge lien<\/a> on it. After consulting with lawyers, they decided to break the contract and hunt for an apartment to rent in Asheville.<\/p>\n

It was a blessing in disguise. One month later, while Sierra and Jamie were still unpacking boxes and building furniture, the remnants of Hurricane Helene<\/a> turned Asheville into a disaster zone. The basement of their apartment flooded, but they were luckier than some of their neighbors, whose homes had been destroyed.<\/p>\n

Owning a home has long been seen as a cornerstone of the American Dream\u2014a way to build wealth that you could use one day to pay for your children\u2019s education and fund your retirement. That arrangement was always more precarious<\/a> than it was made out to be. But as fires and floods damage homes and drive up insurance rates, pouring your life savings into a house has become riskier than ever. In a report called \u201cProperty Prices in Peril<\/a>,\u201d the firm First Street projected last year that climate risks could knock nearly $1.5 trillion off the value of American homes by 2055. For some people, the sociologist Rebecca Elliott wrote<\/a>, \u201cthe American dream of homeownership may become a nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n

A fallen tree on a home in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene in Asheville, North Carolina, in September 2024.<\/span>PHOTOGRAPH: Sean Rayford \/ Getty Images; Grist<\/span><\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n


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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This story originally appeared on Grist and is part of the Climate Desk collaboration. To Sierra Isley, the American Dream brings to mind a home ringed by a white picket fence. \u201cThe house in the suburbs is just what you\u2019re taught growing up,\u201d the 26-year-old said. \u201cYou know, that\u2019s what you see on TV.\u201d What […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[426,755,1127,662,570,223,569,98],"class_list":["post-10153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-gadgets","tag-climate","tag-climate-desk","tag-disasters","tag-flood","tag-housing","tag-hurricanes","tag-real-estate","tag-wildfires"],"yoast_head":"\nThe American Dream Wasn\u2019t Built for Climate Change - Silvybrand Lifestyle Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Owning a home is billed as a way to build wealth, but amid climate-related disasters, for many, it's beginning to feel like a trap.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/silvybrand.com\/?p=10153\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The American Dream Wasn\u2019t Built for Climate Change - 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