Barriers to Coastal Managed Retreat: Evidence from New Jersey’s Blue Acres Program

Managed retreat is a climate adaptation strategy involving government buyouts of at-risk properties that is currently underutilized in coastal areas of the United States. These programs often require both voluntary homeowner applications and municipal government support for a successful buyout. We use a conceptual framework and a set of empirical models with data from a buyout program in a coastal state to develop descriptive evidence on potential barriers to successful managed-retreat policies in high-risk coastal areas. Key factors influencing buyout success can be associated with municipal budgets, including revenues, expenditures, debt, and government transfers. Importantly, revenue impacts related to property taxes appear to contribute to fewer buyouts, suggesting a potential principal-agent problem related to climate resilience in high-value coastal housing markets. Recognition of the combination of factors that may represent barriers to adoption may help the design and implementation of future programs and improve coastal climate adaptation strategies.