5 Questions with Alex Greer: Improving the Home Buyout Process

A damaged home with "do not demo" signage on it following Hurricane Katrina.
Houses in New Orleans were crushed and swept off their foundations by the flooding from Hurricane Katrina in 2005. (Photo courtesy of U.S. Department of Agriculture)

By Mike Nolan

ALBANY, N.Y. (Feb. 4, 2025) — With environmental disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires becoming more frequent and severe, government agencies are looking for ways to reduce hazard exposure, including using federal funds for home buyout programs.

Home buyouts are programs that allow homeowners to sell their properties to the government for pre-disaster fair market value. The goal is to reduce the impact of future disasters by removing properties from areas that are at risk. 

Alex Greer, an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, has spent the past decade studying hazard adjustments and relocation decisions in the wake of weather and climate disasters, including recent wildfires in California and Hawaii.

He’s partnering with researchers at the University of North Texas, Texas State University, and BrokoppBinder Research and Consulting on a $738,000 project, funded by the National Science Foundation, that aims to gain a better understanding of how post-buyout land is used and managed.

We caught up with him to learn more about the project and the residential decision-making process around disasters.

Why is there so little research on home buyout programs, which have been part of local hazard mitigation for decades?

When I started studying hazard-induced buyouts, you could count the number of studies directly addressing this topic on one hand. Research has grown since then, but the rate of buyouts still far outpaces the number of studies examining their implementation and impacts.

While it’s impossible to know for sure, I have a few ideas as to why the research has lagged. First, before 2005, buyouts mostly occurred in smaller communities that did not receive considerable news coverage. More recently, large-scale buyout programs have occurred in the wake of Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy and Harvey, resulting in buyout programs in large metropolitan areas, thereby increasing the attention they have received as a mitigation option. Second, buyouts take a long time to implement, which makes them challenging to study. The programs are funded federally, but implemented locally, with the average buyout taking more than five years to complete.

Can you share more about your research on post-buyout land management?

Most of my work on buyouts has examined how households decide whether to participate, how governments design and implement buyouts, and whether residents are better off for having participated in a buyout. As I delved deeper, though, I started to become interested in what happens to the land acquired through the buyout. Is it used to improve community resilience? How long does it take to implement new land uses on the properties? Are those land uses in line with community expectations for the property? For this study, we are directly addressing these questions.

Headshot of Alex Greer, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
Alex Greer, associate professor in the Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security.

I have partnered with a geographer, a community psychologist, and an ecologist to examine how communities across the state of Texas are managing post-buyout land. We will be measuring land use in a few ways. First, we will conduct an ecological assessment of the land, examining several factors, such as the wildlife and plants present, soil nutrients, and the heat capture and carbon capture potential of the land. Second, we will be documenting land uses on the properties and categorizing them based on their utility. For instance, this land could be used as an amenity that neighbors can enjoy like a park, or it could be a vacant lot with limited utility. Lastly, we will be examining how peripheral residents view the acquired land, how it affects their daily lives, and if their perspective on the properties increases or decreases their support for future mitigation measures. This last step is critical because, other than the property owner, peripheral residents are arguably the most affected by a buyout.

What made you interested in studying people's relocation decisions after disasters?

With an increasing portfolio of our properties in hazard-prone areas in the U.S., we must consider a number of avenues available for reducing hazard exposure. Relocation, typically in the form of a buyout, is often proposed as a permanent measure to reduce said vulnerability. That said, we don’t have a wealth of research that explains how individuals decide whether to move after disasters, or if they are better off for moving. Likewise, we don’t have research that examines whether communities are safer after buyouts occur. I examine this question because I think we are going to talk more and more about "managed retreat" as a nation in the coming years, and we are going to need good science available to build programs that lead to better outcomes for households that move and for households that rebuild.

Do you believe home buyout programs can be an effective mitigation tool?

I think they can, but I would also say that it’s critical to consider all of the parties affected by a buyout, and to specify what the outcome measure is for each party. For example, we have seen cases where individuals move out of one floodplain, only to relocate to another because it is what they could afford or because they love living near the water. Likewise, we have seen cases where individuals move from a home prone to natural hazards and end up in a community where their risk of crime is much higher than their previous community. We have also seen cases where communities regret buyouts because the acquired land was never developed as promised and became an eyesore or depressed local property values. Like many mitigation measures, the costs and benefits of buyouts are not distributed equally, or always in a predictable manner.

How will students be involved in your new project?

As with all my work, training students is central to its success. I’ll be hiring a graduate student to work with me on all phases of the work and intend to run a section of EHC391, our research internship course, in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026 where undergraduate students will have the opportunity to contribute to several aspects of the project. I am particularly excited to work with students interested in the experiences of peripheral residents, and plan to train them on the qualitative and quantitative methods necessary to collect that kind of data.