“An anthrax attack centered on downtown Seattle could cripple the region’s real estate market, causing housing prices to plunge 33 percent and resulting in 70,000 residential foreclosures,” the University of Southern California said in a press release promoting a study analyzing “how an insidious terrorist attack — one that employs radiological, biological or chemical agents — would impact the real estate market of a major city.”
The study, published in the journal Risk Analysis and funded by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, said an anthrax attack could cause 200,000 people to flee Seattle. Some of the subsequent decline in real estate prices could be mitigated if effective communication about the initial threat and progress toward decontamination followed an attack, the university said.
Source: SeattlePI.com
