Hatunen wrote in message . ..

Well, yes and no. Repair and reconstruction prices tend to go up in
the wake of a natural disaster; that's basic supply-and-demand at
work.

While we're on this topic, does anyone know to what extent (and in
what form) would FEMA offer any relief?

As a mater of fact, buying a house in an area where significant
earthquake damage has occured can be a sound business strategy.

[snip]

Prices rebound and
eventually reach new record highs, so you're sitting pretty.

This situation is different, you know. In this case, you're talking
about someone that has free/fresh cash to take risk. In the original
scenario, someone has already committed big money in the property; it
is gone...


This is, of course, a definte risk, since there is nothing to
prevent another earthquake from destroying your new house within
some reasonable length of time, which might be as short as next
year. You're playing the odds, and you won't have good enough
insurance to cover your losses.

Yes, good point. In fact, when the damages are done, we won't even
know if that is the big/last one. Theoretically, it may well be the
pre-shocks. More after-shocks may come, and right now, no one can
predict after-shocks time schedule. Building a new property in temporal
promixity might actually increase your chance of getting hit.


And large earthqukes do sometime occur closely together; it's now
theorized that quakes are not completely random events, but
rather one may cause another nearby.