Changing flood zones

[Phillip Lebron]

Looking at some deals in the St Petersburg Florida area. Some parts of St. Petersburg are not in a flood zone. I know for some homes that ARE in flood zones in the area, the property owners have some astronomical flood insurance. Do flood zones change often? Is there a good rule of thumb when looking for properties in a high risk area like St. Petersburg?

[Cathy Svercl]

the Pinellas County Property Appraiser's Office website makes it easy to check your flood zone. use the Quick Search for your property's address, click search, scroll down to Miscellaneous Parcel Info, and the Evacuation Zone is listed. next to it is the Flood Zone, with a link to the flood map. use the +/- buttons on the map to find the Flood Zones (for example, Zone X, Zone AE 11, etc). this map was updated last year with the most updated Flood Zones based on FEMA LIDAR mapping. https://www.pcpao.gov/

this only lists the Flood Zone for the property.  if you are in Flood Zone AE-11, for example, you want the lowest living level of the house to be at least 1 to 4 feet above the Flood Zone Level.  this is not the same as being 1 to 4 feet above the ground level.  an easy check is to look at new homes in the neighborhood - they would be designed to meet those levels.  

however, if you have access to the Elevation Certificate (the current owner or some Cities have them on file), you can look at the measurements listed there.  the Surveyor (in this example) would list AE-11 in Box B9, and list the lowest living level in C2 (for example, 8.5 feet).  this example means the house is 2.5 feet lower than the BFE Base Flood Elevation, even though it might be only 4 inches above the ground level.