I think there's room to take advantage and profit from some hysteria and stereotypes. All parts of the "flood plain" are not the same, but many people don't realize that. For instance anything north of Kensington Road / West of 14th is a good 5-6 feet higher than Memorial and at an advantage. I keep an eye on housing values in the area and can say that Hillhurst / West Hillhurst has not seen a significant drop in pricing. Activity might have slowed some, but I still see $1.4M newly built infills moving in the 10th St to 14th St sweet spot. Sunnyside might have be painted with a broader brush regarding to flooding issues though.
The City evac maps are a handy way to gauge who's most likely at risk.
I'd also factor in to potential purchase costs some flood proofing costs - ie a backflow preventer.
You might want to model out some "worst case scenarios" around if the 1/100 flood does hit and the basement floods - what restoration costs would be. If it's a $50K hit, and you're able to exact a $100K reduction on a house from FMV (for example), I'd weight it up against the benefits of living in these areas in a classic cost/benefit equation for the remaining 99 years it doesn't flood.
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