Anyone who walked (or tried to walk!) through San Francisco in the face of heavy rains last week will have noticed something. Despite all its natural and architectural beauty, our city has a puddle problem. A big one.

So much so, that the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission is lobbying for a new ordinance that would force homeowners to notify prospective buyers when a building for sale is in a flood-prone area. As the SF Chronicle reported last week, sellers would have to use a map to determine if their parcel is in such a part of the city, which would trigger a disclosure for would-be buyers.

While most of the properties our team sells lie in unaffected areas, we feel for those who have to face this persistent problem. If this ordinance goes into effect, it will be interesting to see what impact this would have on property values in flood-prone neighborhoods, such as SoMa and the Fillmore District.