Irma smashed through the Caribbean as a Category 5 hurricane, then weakened before hitting Florida on Sept. 10. With winds topping 100 miles per hour, the storm caused billions of dollars of damage to homes, utilities, and citrus crops.

It’s too soon to know how Irma affected the market, says Aaron Terrazas, a senior economist at Zillow. But there’s anecdotal evidence that it’s taking a toll on property values: A company that assesses flood risks is booming, and workshops for municipal leaders to deal with the impact are drawing sold-out crowds.

Before the storm, Bloomberg reported about the concerns of homeowners, local officials, business executives, and housing lenders that South Florida’s real estate downturn could be closer than many people realize. This month we checked in with some of the people featured in that story, to find out how Irma affected them—and what their experiences augur for the future of the real estate market in Florida and other coastal areas.

Albert Slap

One of those people is Albert Slap, who would rather not be profiting from other people’s misfortune. But his business, determining the flood risk facing specific homes around South Florida, has never been better. And he thanks Irma.

“It changed everything for us,” Slap, owner of Coastal Risk Consulting, said by phone. “As a flood assessment company, it’s kind of on fire for us now.”

What’s good for Slap isn’t necessarily good for the region’s property values. His customers include insurance companies worried that federal flood maps underestimate risk, as well as potential homebuyers trying to find out if they’re about to buy a house that will be regularly inundated by South Florida’s increasingly troublesome tidal flooding.

The region’s frothy home values, Slap said, have persisted because of what he calls “a dirty little secret” among real estate agents, who are aware of the flood risks but face no requirement to disclose them to buyers.

Slap said the increase in his business shows that buyers are starting to become more aware of the problem—and as that happens, housing values will fall. And he said it’s only a matter of time before real estate agents are required by law to reveal those flood risks, noting that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to that effect in 2017. The Senate has yet to take it up.

The alternative is a housing market kept afloat by “systemic fraudulent nondisclosure,” Slap said. “Which is pretty much what we have now.”