It's certainly a choice to buy a property at risk of falling into the sea, but that's exactly what one man did, and it could become a test case for restorative beachfront ownership.
David Moot, 59, bought a home on Cape Cod in Massachusetts for $395,000, a 66.9% discount from a 2022 asking price, the Guardian and other outlets reported. "A sandy, crumbling cliff" is just 25 feet away.
"Life's too short, and I just said to myself, 'Let's just see what happens,'" Moot told Bloomberg. "It's going to eventually fall into the ocean, and it may or may not be in my lifetime."
Almost all the beaches on the East Coast are eroding, according to the Guardian, and Cape Cod and surrounding areas are no exception. In fact, it's losing over 3 feet a year, 1 foot above average. Bloomberg noted that $106 billion in U.S. coastal properties could be gone in 30 years.
Florida International University professor Stephen Leatherman told the newspaper that the beach might be wide in summer but will narrow in winter, when storms and waves can then reach the bluffs.
Another issue is that the area, like others around the world, used to be full of glaciers, so instead of bedrock cliffs, the bluffs are made of glacial soils.
"While less susceptible to coastal flooding and inundation, as bluffs tend to be high up, these coastlines are particularly susceptible to shoreline retreat, imperiling structures built at the edge of bluffs," University of Massachusetts Amherst professor Brian Yellen told the Guardian.
So, Moot plans to trial ways to protect his gamble, as he told The Boston Globe. Planting beach grass to stabilize the sand is one option, while moving part of the house away from the cliff is another. Still, just 11 years ago, the 25-foot buffer zone was 100 feet.
The Guardian added that a combination of native plants, natural materials such as oyster shells, and sand or stone could help, too. Anything to stem the tide of the rising sea, which is driven by the human-caused heating of the planet.
"These installations are designed to protect property and prevent erosion while improving habitat, water quality and ecological condition in a way that appears natural and is consistent with the character of coastal communities and uses of the shore," Alison Bowden of The Nature Conservancy told the outlet.
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