Six figures for six feet: Some Harvey victims in Houston spend huge sums to elevate their homes
https://www.texastribune.org/2018/03/14/harvey-elevate-homes-flood-houston-money-costs/...Instead, they recently paid a contractor nearly $300,000 to lift their 3,350-square-foot house 6 feet off the ground so they won’t have to worry about the next big storm....
...A growing number of Houston homeowners who have suffered repeated flooding — the city has seen major floods for three straight years — have decided to elevate their homes. And most, like Axelrad and her husband, largely have to pay for the elevation themselves. With a mix of their own money, insurance funds, a small grant and an SBA loan, the family of five is chipping away at the $280,000 elevation bill. They’ve stopped saving money and contributing to their retirement fund to help pay off the new debt.
Like many of their neighbors, they applied for a Federal Emergency Management Agency grant to elevate their home after the 2015 flood but found themselves behind more than 200 others on the waiting list.
As of December, only 42 families had received those FEMA grants, and just nine had elevated their homes or begun construction. Those looking to elevate their homes after Harvey have two options: get on FEMA’s list and risk flooding again as they wait or find a way to fund the project themselves.
“We knew that there would be more grants, but we weren’t willing to put our kids through another flood again while we waited for one,†Axelrad said.
Elevation and construction company Arkitektura, which elevated Axelrad's home, estimates the cost of elevating the typical house at about $75 per square foot — or more than $112,000 for a 1,500-square-foot house. And because families still need to fix flood damage inside their homes, the final bill can be even higher....
