When considering a lot to build your house on (or when considering purchasing an existing home for that matter), it is important to find out if the lot is in a flood plain. Basically, this will tell you the liklihood that your home will be involved in a flood. Not only do insurance rates increase for people in flood plains, but you may also end up in fear of floods everytime it rains (I know I would be).

If have found a great website to easily help determine flood plains in your area. The FEMA Map Service Center allows you to zoom in on a map of the U.S. to any location of interest. It will then pull up the appropriate flood plain map for that area.

All you have to do is browse to the FEMA Map Service Center website and click the Map Search menu item. Good luck!