Though the full extent of the havoc wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton is still being assessed, by now we’re all clear on one thing: home insurance markets are in crisis, with devastating consequences for people across the United States.
While Helene and Milton have thrown the chaos of home insurance into stark relief, this is not a new issue. Insurance companies have been cutting coverage, refusing to renew policies, and departing from certain regions and even whole states. This has left homeowners, multifamily housing providers, and renters exposed to possible financial ruin. More broadly, it leaves property markets vulnerable to collapse, with implications for the entire financial system. It has also strained public coffers as these yawning insurance gaps mean state and federal disaster response programs are expected to foot the bill after the fact.
Unfortunately, media and policy conversations have mostly focused on rescuing the insurance industry instead of exploring the root causes of housing instability in a country increasingly vulnerable to climate disasters. So we at Climate and Community Institute decided to dig below the surface and investigate how insurance price increases, climate risk, and socioeconomic factors overlap across the country. We also interrogated whether the media and policy solutions on offer are the best approach to ensuring safe, affordable housing. Building on those findings, we designed policy ideas that can ensure protections for homeowners and renters and meet the moment with concrete risk reduction solutions.
Our analysis showed that the US home insurance system is fatally flawed, relying too heavily on private markets to manage household disaster risk. As our final report documents, insurance…
Auteur: Moira Birss
