Find your place

What people often assume: There will always be a hospital close by.

What the record shows: Rural hospitals do close, and the trip gets longer when they do. A federal review of rural closures found that for residents of the affected areas, the typical straight-line distance to general inpatient care went from 3.4 miles in 2012 to 23.9 miles in 2018.

What to do with this: Before you commit to a place, find out which hospital serves the address and time the drive.

Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-21-93, Rural Hospital Closures

What people often assume: Farther out is simpler.

What the record shows: Each step away from town buys space and quiet, and adds minutes to every service you will ever call: ambulance, fire, repair, and the neighbor who can lend a hand.

What to do with this: Decide how many minutes you are willing to add, then look for places inside that line.

What people often assume: If the house is outside the flood zone, flooding is not my concern.

What the record shows: FEMA reports that 99% of U.S. counties had a flood event in the past 20 years. From 2014 to 2024, nearly one-third of federal flood insurance claims came from outside the mapped high-risk areas. Inside those areas, FEMA puts the chance of flooding at least once during a 30-year mortgage at 1 in 4.

What to do with this: Look up the address on the flood map, then ask about flood insurance either way. FEMA describes lower-risk zones as low but still meaningful risk.

Source: FEMA FloodSmart, What Is My Flood Risk

What people often assume: The dangerous weather is the dramatic kind: tornadoes and hurricanes.

What the record shows: In the National Weather Service's most recent ten-year averages, heat is linked to more deaths per year (279) than floods (118), tornadoes (51), or hurricane winds (25). The order changes from year to year. In 2025, floods were higher. EPA notes that death certificates very likely undercount heat deaths, because many are recorded as heart or breathing problems.

What to do with this: If you are choosing a hot climate, ask how the home stays cool when the power is out, and who nearby would check on you.

Source: National Weather Service, 81-Year List of Severe Weather Fatalities; EPA, Climate Change Indicators: Heat-Related Deaths

What people often assume: Either that long outages never happen here, or that the grid is one bad day from failing.

What the record shows: In an ordinary year, outside of major events, the average U.S. customer is without power for about two hours in total. Major storms change the picture. In 2024 the national average was 11 hours, and hurricanes and other major events accounted for 80% of it. South Carolina customers averaged nearly 53 hours that year. Customers in Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Massachusetts averaged under two.

What to do with this: Outage time depends heavily on the state and its storms. Ask what the last long outage was at the address and how long it lasted, then plan for the things in your home that cannot wait.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Today in Energy, December 1, 2025

What people often assume: More acres means more food.

What the record shows: A connected in-town house with a useful garden can produce more than a large parcel nobody has time to work. What grows depends on sun, soil, water, and weekly hours, not on the deed.

What to do with this: Size the land to the hours you have. Count usable ground, not total acres.

What people often assume: If the house is outside the flood zone, flooding is not my concern.

What the record shows: FEMA reports that 99% of U.S. counties had a flood event in the past 20 years. From 2014 to 2024, nearly one-third of federal flood insurance claims came from outside the mapped high-risk areas. Inside those areas, FEMA puts the chance of flooding at least once during a 30-year mortgage at 1 in 4.

What to do with this: Look up the address on the flood map, then ask about flood insurance either way. FEMA describes lower-risk zones as low but still meaningful risk.

Source: FEMA FloodSmart, What Is My Flood Risk

What people often assume: Either that long outages never happen here, or that the grid is one bad day from failing.

What the record shows: In an ordinary year, outside of major events, the average U.S. customer is without power for about two hours in total. Major storms change the picture. In 2024 the national average was 11 hours, and hurricanes and other major events accounted for 80% of it. South Carolina customers averaged nearly 53 hours that year. Customers in Arizona, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Massachusetts averaged under two.

What to do with this: Outage time depends heavily on the state and its storms. Ask what the last long outage was at the address and how long it lasted, then plan for the things in your home that cannot wait.

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration, Today in Energy, December 1, 2025

What the record shows: Employers reported 21.2 million layoffs and discharges in 2025. That counts separations, not people, and it includes firings and the end of seasonal jobs. It is still the disruption on this list with the largest yearly count we could source.

What to do with this: A place with more than one way to earn a living is worth weighing.

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Job Openings and Labor Turnover, annual 2025 levels

What the record shows: The three leading causes of death in the United States in 2024 were heart disease, cancer, and accidents. The ten leading causes together accounted for 70.9% of all deaths.

What to do with this: Access to regular care is part of choosing a place. Your answer on distance to care carries this.

Source: CDC National Center for Health Statistics, Data Brief 548, Mortality in the United States, 2024

What the record shows: CDC counted four influenza pandemics in the hundred years before 2018: in 1918, 1957, 1968, and 2009. The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020.

What to do with this: What a home can offer is room to keep apart when someone is sick and a workable route to care. Distance from other people also means distance from care.

Source: CDC archive, 1918 Pandemic Commemoration key messages; CDC Museum COVID-19 Timeline

What the record shows: The national crime survey for 2024 found 48.3 property crimes per 1,000 households in rural areas, 96.1 in suburban areas, and 181.6 in urban areas. Lower is not zero, and these are national averages for broad categories. They do not describe any one town. About 3 in 10 property crimes were reported to police, so local police figures show part of the picture.

What to do with this: For a specific place, ask the sheriff's office or police department what they see most.

Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, Criminal Victimization, 2024; Bureau of Justice Statistics, Key Findings from the 2024 NCVS: Property Crime

What the record shows: No agency publishes how often this happens to U.S. households, because it is not a recurring event the way storms and layoffs are. We cannot give you a number and will not invent one.

What to do with this: You can give this worry as much weight as you choose. It comes back when you are comparing specific towns, with what is known about distance. If a radiation emergency ever did happen, the federal guidance is the same in every town: get inside, stay inside, and stay tuned, and expect to shelter for 24 hours or longer until officials say it is safe to leave.

Source: Ready.gov, Radiation Emergencies