By "coastal areas", they're not talking beach houses (or, at least, not just beach houses). I think everywhere within some stated distance of the coast (probably something like 100 miles) is considered to live in a coastal area. Only houses right on the beach would be likely to be underwater in any probable 30-year interval.
And a lot of those people may not be "choosing to live" in coastal regions, they may be projecting general growth patterns in those areas from childbirth rates and the like, as well as population declines in other areas.
Gives new meaning to the property being underwater I suppose. Most people are practical and know it isn't really rising at a dangerous rate. People are flocking to Florida, Texas, and California and are obviously not waiting for the climate to warm in the north. I think AGW is very low on people's lists of things to worry about.
Simple. If the water is a couple feet out now, it will just be tickling their toes by the time the mortgage is paid, their children have moved on, and there's only a couple of marbles rolling about in their head and time to move to "Sunset Acres" a couple of miles inland, or up north with their grandchildren. That's why.
For these people living on very flat atoll islands with their highest point only about a meter or so high, well...I can't answer that. Erosion and earthquakes will probably get them first, if not their governements.
Gonna take a while
According to the National Science Foundation: "More than half the world's human population lived in coastal areas in the year 2000; that percentage is expected to rise to 75 percent by 2025." How are people going pay for their 30 year mortgages if their property is underwater?
