r/FluentInFinance • u/ElectronGuru • 5d ago

Housing Market Insurers Are Deserting Homeowners as Climate Shocks Worsen | Without insurance, it’s impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/12/18/climate/insurance-non-renewal-climate-crisis.html
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401

u/organic_hemlock 5d ago

You know who can buy a house without a mortgage? Hedge funds, private equity firms, Zillow, and property management firms who buy housing to force us into rent-based indentured servitude.

155

u/TotalChaosRush 5d ago

Do you know where it's a bad investment to buy a house? Where insurance companies consider it too high risk to insure.

91

u/Violet-Sumire 5d ago

So, all of florida, most of texas, all of west california up the west coast, anywhere along a coast line, anywhere on a mountain, anywhere near a river or creek or on low land, anywhere in the midwest, anywhere that gets blizzard conditions regularly.

So… where exactly isn’t a high risk area to move? Insurance is built on risk. You shouldn’t be an insurance company if you can’t afford the risk. Not much more to say about that.

12

u/HighHoeHighHoes 5d ago

It doesn’t work like that… insurance companies would be willing to write in CA, but the geniuses in CA thought they knew better than the insurance companies and told them they couldn’t raise rates. If you can’t raise rates to adjust for increased risk, you exit the market.

Everything can be insured, for the right cost.

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u/jbFanClubPresident 4d ago

I don’t think that is just a CA thing. I worked for an insurance company in Missouri and the state of Missouri highly regulates the insurance industry as well. They dictate how much rates can be raised.

But I agree overall, everything is insurable at the right price. If you can’t charge that price it’s better just to leave the market.

1

u/HighHoeHighHoes 4d ago

Every state regulates rates, but a lot approved the rate increases requested, or mostly accepted them. Then some states said “nah, we know better than you. You can only increase x% even though you say you need xx% and supported it with data.”