Hurricane delivers windfall to lucky high-ground owners

Washington DC

JUST a week after Hurricane Harvey struck Houston, Irma Jalifi was doing something that might sound crazy: writing an offer on a home.

In fact, Ms Jalifi, a real-estate agent with Redfin, put in offers on not one but three Houston houses Tuesday at their asking prices - two at US$1 million and a three-bedroom at US$450,000 - as the new economics of Houston housing began to take hold.

The calculus of disaster is simple, if cold-blooded.

Many whose homes have been flooded must move, and those who dodged Harvey now sit upon some of the city's most desirable addresses.

Far from declining, prices and rents are expected to rise, given the sudden housing shortage…