Long Beach, CA

The 1933 Long Beach earthquake—6.4 magnitude, 115 deaths, widespread school building collapse—directly shaped California's seismic building code history. That event still frames local building-code context for a city where the earthquake score sits at the 92nd national percentile today. Winter storm coastal flooding in 2023 added contemporary evidence: beachfront and low-lying infrastructure saw recurring inundation in areas that do not commonly market themselves as flood-exposed. Long Beach's flood score of 62 sits at the 73rd national percentile—moderate, but not trivial near the coast. What we noticed: the risk profile here splits cleanly by geography. Belmont Shore and the Downtown waterfront face coastal erosion, sea-level sensitivity, and liquefaction concerns on soft soils. Bixby Knolls' older housing needs earthquake diligence that is independent of flood zone status. East Long Beach's heat and airport-adjacent tradeoffs represent a different risk calculus from the coastal strips. Annual premiums range from $1,400 to $3,500—manageable, but with specific liquefaction-sensitive areas deserving extra diligence even when flood insurance is not mandatory. Earthquake policies remain a discretionary but important add-on: the 1933 event established the local code history, and the ongoing seismic exposure has not diminished. Liquefaction-sensitive areas near the waterfront can face compounding exposure from both ground failure and coastal flooding in a single event. Heat at the 64th national percentile is moderate—but the urban heat island and airport-adjacent thermal loading in East Long Beach run higher than city-wide averages suggest. Long Beach is primarily a seismic and coastal infrastructure story. The flood and heat variables are real but secondary, and buyers should weight them in that order.

— Open Data Collective