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House price index (2000 = 100) and Expected yearly tornado loss

Where House price index (2000 = 100) is higher, Expected yearly tornado loss tends to be lower. The link is weak: -0.32 across 2,391 counties, on a scale from −1 (opposite) to +1 (in step). That figure compares places with the same population density, income and education, so those differences can't explain it. It holds inside states too. Measured separately within each of 38 states, the middle value of the link is -0.12.

Holds after adjusting

Every place, plotted

One dot for each place reporting both measures. Hover over or tap a dot to see its name and values. The thin line is the straight line that best fits the dots. The bold line, shown for counties, is the link after adjusting for density, income and education. A dot far from the lines is a place that does not follow the pattern.

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What each measure is

House price index (2000 = 100)

House prices compared with the same place in 2000, which is set to 100. A value of 250 means prices are 2.5 times what they were in 2000. It is not a price in dollars, so it shows growth, not which place costs more.

FHFA House Price Index · FHFA HPI all-transactions annual (developmental county/state), HPI with 2000 base

Expected yearly tornado loss

The damage tornadoes are expected to do to buildings in an average year, in dollars for every $100,000 that the buildings are worth. FEMA works it out from the tornadoes recorded from 1986 to 2023 and the damage they did.

FEMA National Risk Index · FEMA National Risk Index v1.20, NRI_Table_Counties / NRI_Table_States, TRND_ALRB

Highest and lowest

Where each measure is highest and lowest among the places reporting both (2023), with the other measure beside it. This is shown for every size of place where both are published. Metro-area values are added up from their counties. A measure that cannot be added up across counties, such as a middle value (median), has no metro figure. Counts are shown per 1,000 residents, since raw totals would only list the largest places. Cities and towns and ZIP codes are shown where the Census survey or the CDC publishes them; most other sources stop at the county. They are shown for places of 5,000 residents or more, and only where the survey’s margin of error is small enough for the figure to be usable. The CDC publishes its health estimates for cities in a version adjusted for age, so places with older or younger people can be compared fairly, but not for ZIP codes.

Counties

By house price index (2000 = 100)

House price index (2000 = 100)Expected yearly tornado loss
Highest
Adams County, ID4680.192
Williams County, ND4665.6
Shoshone County, ID4650.0493
Hamlin County, SD45818.9
Richland County, MT4526.24
Lowest
Luce County, MI1360.229
Coahoma County, MS14011.2
Stephenson County, IL14213.3
Massac County, IL14220.2
McDonough County, IL14310.9

By expected yearly tornado loss

House price index (2000 = 100)Expected yearly tornado loss
Highest
Johnson County, IA20462.9
Logan County, OK26260.3
York County, NE23147.5
Platte County, NE24944.7
Fillmore County, NE24037.9
Lowest
Anchorage Municipality, AK2360.000001
Sitka City and Borough, AK2560.000003
Fairbanks North Star Borough, AK2120.000005
Ketchikan Gateway Borough, AK2400.000006
Juneau City and Borough, AK2430.000008
States

By house price index (2000 = 100)

House price index (2000 = 100)Expected yearly tornado loss
Highest
District of Columbia3951.51
Florida3545.22
Hawaii3530.196
Idaho3440.372
Montana3290.9
Lowest
Illinois17312.3
Michigan17610
West Virginia1831.6
Ohio1848.37
Mississippi19019.2

By expected yearly tornado loss

House price index (2000 = 100)Expected yearly tornado loss
Highest
Nebraska22827.4
Iowa20222.6
Mississippi19019.2
Oklahoma23018.4
Alabama20718.1
Lowest
Alaska2390.000238
Nevada2820.0317
Washington3190.183
Hawaii3530.196
Oregon2910.219

Counties furthest from the pattern

Compared with the straight line that best fits all 2,392 counties: the five with far more expected yearly tornado loss than their house price index (2000 = 100) would suggest, and the five with far less.

House price index (2000 = 100)Expected yearly tornado loss
Above the line
Logan County, OK26260.3
Johnson County, IA20462.9
York County, NE23147.5
Platte County, NE24944.7
Turner County, SD34332.4
Below the line
Luce County, MI1360.229
Jackson County, WV1540.885
Kanawha County, WV1570.842
Tazewell County, VA1620.769
Mercer County, WV1690.695

Two series, one county

Both measures over time for a county you pick. The two charts are stacked, so they share only the years along the bottom. You can pick from the thirty largest counties reporting both. This panel covers 2010–2024, and a measure published only once shows as a single dot.

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Every version of the link

Each row measures the same link, from −1 to +1, in a different way. If the rows mostly agree, the link does not depend on one choice of method.

Before adjusting for anything-0.3542,391 counties reporting both
After adjusting for density, income and education-0.320the part of the link that is not just how urban, rich and educated a place is
Also adjusting for population size-0.285size taken out as well as density
Also comparing only within each state-0.106each county is compared only with others in its own state, so this is no longer a comparison between states
Giving bigger counties more weight-0.391the adjusted link for the average resident rather than the average county. With this weighting, the data counts for about 276 equally weighted counties
Middle value inside single states-0.123the link worked out inside each of 38 states with at least 20 counties reporting
Using ranks, after adjusting-0.374uses each county’s rank, not its value, so a few extreme counties cannot create the link

How much to believe it

Could it be chance?

The p-value is the chance of seeing a link this strong if there were really none. A value of 0.05 or less means the link is unlikely to be chance. Very small values are written in short form: 3.1e-16 means 0.00000000000000031, and the bigger the number after “e-”, the smaller the value. Treating every county as a separate case gives p = 5.1e-58. But counties in the same state tend to resemble each other, so the better figure allows for that: p = 6.1e-5. The site tested 29,403 pairs, and testing so many turns up some flukes. The q-value allows for that too. For this pair it is 3.6e-57.

Do nearby places look alike?

Moran’s I measures how much nearby places look alike: 0 means no map pattern, and higher means neighbours are more similar. For the part of each county that the adjustment leaves unexplained, it is +0.79 (p = 0.001). That unexplained part still clusters on the map. So some regional factor shared by both measures is not accounted for.

Did they change together?

Not measurable: at least one of these is published for too few of the years a change needs (2014–2019 or 2019–2023), or for too few counties in both.

Related pairs

Association only. Nothing here shows that either measure changes the other. This describes counties, not the people in them. Two measures going together across places does not mean the same people have both. How the US county data works · Explore House price index (2000 = 100) and Expected yearly tornado loss