What does Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, not have that Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, has?

A high level of natural hazard risk — specifically, from tornadoes. The two counties were at opposite ends of the risk spectrum in ATTOM Data Solutions' “2016 U.S. Natural Hazard Housing Risk Index,” issued Thursday.

The third annual study from ATTOM found that home sales — including for-sale apartments — in the first six months of this year increased by 4.2% year over year in the bottom fifth of United States counties with the lowest level of natural hazard risk. That's more than twice the 1.9% increase in the top fifth of U.S. counties that have the highest level of natural hazard risk, including earthquakes, floods, hail, hurricane storm surge and wildfires as well as tornadoes.

Natural hazard risk makes a difference to homebuyers

“While price and affordability along with access to jobs are the primary drivers in local markets with strong increases in home sales activity in 2016, it's evident from this data that natural hazard risk does make a difference to homebuyers and investors who are active in this housing market,” says Daren Blomquist, SVP at Irvine, California-based ATTOM. “Even among the subset of counties where the median price is below the national median as well as among the subset of counties where home prices are still affordable for average wage earners, there is a consistent trend of stronger increases in home sales volume compared to a year ago in the lowest-risk markets for natural hazards compared to the highest-risk markets.”