How to Check If a Houston House Has Flooded Before You Buy

How to Check If a Houston House Has Flooded Before You Buy

Fresh paint, new floors, new baseboards. In most of the country that's a nice renovation. In Houston it's also exactly what a flooded house looks like after the rebuild.

Hurricane Harvey alone flooded 154,170 single-family homes in Harris County, according to the Harris County Flood Control District (we covered the full count in our Harvey anniversary post). Add Allison, Tax Day, Memorial Day, Imelda and Beryl, and a lot of Houston homes have a flood story. Plenty of them have changed hands since. You can find out whether the one you're about to buy is one of them.

Start With the Seller's Disclosure, and Know Its Gaps

Texas has one of the stronger seller disclosure laws in the country. Since 2019, the standard notice asks sellers whether the home has flooded, whether they've filed a flood insurance claim (including with the National Flood Insurance Program), and whether they've received FEMA or SBA assistance for flood damage. It also asks whether the property sits in a 100-year or 500-year floodplain, a flood pool or reservoir.

That's useful. It's also limited in three ways:

• It covers what the seller knows. A seller who bought in 2020 may truly not know the house flooded in 2017.
• Some sales are exempt. Foreclosures, estate sales handled by an executor, and brand-new homes that were never lived in generally don't come with the standard notice.
• It's a checkbox, not a record. No central database carries disclosures forward when a home changes hands.

Read the disclosure. Then verify it.

Six Places Flood History Shows Up

Two of those deserve a closer look.

The NFIP Record Only the Seller Can Get

The single best record of a home's flood history is its National Flood Insurance Program claims file. Buyers can't get it. Under the federal Privacy Act, FEMA releases a property's flood claim history only to the owner, and the owner has to request it in writing (opens in a new tab).

So ask the seller to request it. If they won't, that's an answer of its own.

The HCAD Clue Most Buyers Miss

The Harris Central Appraisal District records a remodel year for homes that were substantially updated. We pulled that field for every home in HCAD's building records, and one year jumps off the page:

In the years before and after, HCAD logged roughly 5,000 to 11,000 remodels a year. In 2018 it logged 28,079—about three times a typical year—and more than 5,500 of those homes appear in FEMA's modeled Harvey damage. Those are the Harvey rebuilds.

A 2018 or 2019 remodel date doesn't prove a house flooded. Plenty of people renovate for other reasons. But it's a free, public, two-minute check, and it's a fair reason to ask the seller a direct question.

One Source Is Never Enough

Every flood record has blind spots. FEMA's modeled Harvey damage, for example, flags 53,083 single-family homes in Harris County—far fewer than the 154,170 the Flood Control District counted as flooded. The model is an estimate built from water-depth grids, and it misses homes. Insurance claims miss homes too, because most Houston homeowners didn't carry flood insurance in 2017.

That's why the answer comes from stacking sources, not trusting one.

What to Look for at the Showing

• New drywall or a fresh paint line along the bottom two to four feet of walls
• New baseboards, flooring and lower cabinets in an otherwise older house
• A musty smell, or a dehumidifier running in a room that doesn't need one
• Water heater, HVAC and appliances that are all the same recent age
• Water lines or rust on fences, sheds or the garage

Ask your inspector for moisture readings along the base of exterior walls. It's a small add-on that can save a very large mistake.

What to Do Before Your Option Period Ends

1. Check the address. A FloodMaps report shows your FEMA flood zone and ground elevation for free, and the full report adds FEMA's Harvey damage data at the address, flood gauge history, nearby 311 flooding reports and the draft FEMA zones. Two minutes, no signup for the free check.
2. Ask the seller to request the NFIP claims history from FEMA, in writing.
3. Look up the home on HCAD. Note the remodel year and ask about any work done in 2017 to 2019.
4. Get a flood insurance quote now, not after closing. The quote itself tells you how FEMA's rating system sees the house.
5. Tell your inspector you want moisture readings and a look at the lowest walls.

A flooded house isn't automatically a bad buy. Some were rebuilt higher and better. The problem is buying one without knowing—and pricing it like a house that never took on water.

See y'all on the high ground.

Quick Answers

How can I find out if a house in Houston has flooded? Start with the Texas seller's disclosure, then verify it by asking the seller to request the property's NFIP claims history from FEMA, checking the remodel year on HCAD, reviewing FEMA's modeled Harvey damage at the address, and looking at nearby 311 flooding reports and gauge history.

Can a buyer get a home's flood insurance claim history? Not directly. Under the federal Privacy Act, FEMA releases a property's NFIP claims history only to the current owner, who must request it in writing.

Do Texas sellers have to disclose past flooding? Yes. Since 2019, the Texas seller's disclosure notice asks about flood events, flood insurance claims, and FEMA or SBA flood assistance the seller knows about. Some transfers, like foreclosures and estate sales, are exempt.

What does a 2018 remodel year on HCAD mean? Nothing on its own, but HCAD recorded about three times the usual number of remodels in 2018, and more than 5,500 of those homes appear in FEMA's modeled Harvey damage. It's worth asking the seller what work was done and why.

Sources: Harris County Flood Control District Harvey counts; Post and Courier on NFIP claim privacy (opens in a new tab); Texas SB 339 (2019) bill analysis (opens in a new tab); FloodMaps analysis of HCAD building records and FEMA modeled Harvey damage.