Financing “climate-proof” housing? The premises and pitfalls of PACE finance in Florida

Taylor, Zac J.; Knuth, Sarah E.

Abstract

Amidst growing concerns for climate risks to US housing markets, strategies to physically retrofit homes are gaining attention—including within debates over how to resolve intersecting crises of housing re/insurability and affordability in highly exposed sites like Florida. We consider an important but under-studied example of this “climate-proofing” strategy unfolding today: Residential Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE). While PACE historically financed decarbonization retrofits, it is increasingly deployed to facilitate hurricane risk reduction in Florida. In this paper, we introduce PACE: its basic characteristics, evolving uses, and controversies. Exploring the Florida case, we examine two deeper but as yet under-examined financial tensions: PACE’s intersections with other forms of property-linked finance (and potential systemic breakdowns) and rising affordability breakpoints as homeowners encounter its new debt amidst other growing and intersecting climate/climate response costs. These issues call for more transformative imaginaries of urban retrofitting and its resourcing.

Citation

Taylor, Z. J., & Knuth, S. E. (2023). Financing “climate-proof” housing? The premises and pitfalls of PACE finance in Florida. Journal of Urban Affairs, https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2247503

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 10, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Sep 15, 2023
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Sep 13, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 26, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Urban Affairs
• Print ISSN: 0735-2166
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/07352166.2023.2247503
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1736816