HOUSINGNEWS REPORT
FEATURED ARTICLE
Flooding and natural hazards are not new to the United States. During the 1930s, the Dust Bowl sent thousands of Americans from Oklahoma to California, fleeing the drought and sand storms. Folk singer Woody Guthrie popularized the 19th century diaspora in a song titled “DoRe Mi.” Eleven years ago, flooding after Hurricane Katrina displaced over 95,000 New Orleanians, who fled the city after the deluge — never returning and decreasing the city’s population from 484,000 before the flood to 389,617 residents today, according to the Census Bureau . 36 Million Homes At Risk As Florida grapples with king tides, rising seas and periodic hurricanes, coastal communities nationwide will need to prepare for natural hazards posed by flooding. Today, some 35.8 million single family homes and condominiums with a combined estimated market value of $6.6 trillion are in counties with high or very high natural hazard risk nationwide, according the ATTOM Data Solutions . That’s 43 percent of the nation’s 83.4 million single family homes and condominiums. While there is no consensus on climate change; there is one thing all agree: flooding is getting more expensive — and more frequent.
Miami Beach, Florida flood
NFIP was created by Congress in 1968, partly in response to devastating losses after Hurricane Betsy hit Louisiana in 1965. NFIP is now practically the sole provider of flood insurance for home owners and small businesses nationwide. Additionally, Citizens Property Insurance Company , a state-run, not-for-profit, tax exempted insurance company, was created in 2002 to provide affordable insurance for high-risk buyers in Florida who could not find insurance on the open market. After a flurry of hurricanes and tropical storms in the mid-2000s, Citizen exploded in size as major private insurers cut back in writing policies in Florida. Citizen, which was created to be the state’s insurer of last resort, became the state’s largest insurance company with 1.5 million policies by 2011. Now, Citizen is the fourth largest insurer,
trimmed down to fewer than 503,000 policies, according to the Insurance Information Institute .
The number of people living in coastal areas in Florida increased by 4.2 million, or 27 percent, from 15.6 million in 2000 to 19.8 million in 2015, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. About 98 percent of the total population of Florida lives in one of the coastal counties. “There’s no doubt that (flood insurance) premiums are going up,” said Brosman, whose company represent lenders and mortgage services. “It seem like this is inevitable.” According to the Insurance Information Institute , 12 percent of American homeowners had a flood insurance policy in 2016, down from 14 percent in 2015.
ATTOM Data Solutions • P9
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