Climate change is contributing to skyrocketing home insurance costs, experts say - WSAZ
Climate change is contributing to skyrocketing home insurance costs, experts say
(CNN) - Storms are becoming more severe across the country, and those wild weather patterns, now so widespread, mean higher costs for home insurance.
Hurricanes, flash floods, tornadoes, and wildfires, weather patterns are drastically changing across the country. Last year there were 28 weather and climate disasters reported, with each topping $1 billion in losses, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
And it’s costing consumers, especially in high-risk areas with skyrocketing home insurance costs.
“When the trends go to the extremes, all the financial modeling that the insurance companies base their rates on gets disrupted,” Travis Hodges said.
Hodges is an insurance broker at Hub International. He said costs have gone up by as much as 25% in some cases, and it’s in every state.
According to insurance tracker Bankrate.com, the average annual rate for a home worth $300,000 is $2,151. But in some areas of Florida, like Fort Lauderdale, you could be paying about $10,151 a year.
And most insurance policies don’t cover flood damage; that’s a separate policy.
So, what’s causing these high increases?
“When the losses do happen, all of the house values have gone up, all the labor costs have gone up all of the materials have gone up,” Hodges said.
All of that means it costs more to repair any damage and rebuild to new building codes.
Hodges said there are things homeowners can do to help lower their annual costs. For example, raising your deductible by as much as $500 can lower your premium bill by as much as 15-20%.
Hodges also recommends bundling your insurance and shopping around to compare different rates.
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Related Knowledge Center: Climate economics
Climate change is now a driver of the world’s economy. The impact is profound:
- Catastrophic weather events — hurricanes, floods, droughts, high temperatures — are more frequent and more extreme. The cost can be measured in both the initial damage caused and the longer-term impact on the economy.
- Vulnerable communities are increasing climate-related investments, hardening infrastructure and taking other protective measures.
- Investment in carbon capture and storage technologies is increasingly rapidly.
- Governments are making investments and crafting regulations to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
On top of all of this is the cost of uncertainty. As the Fourth National Climate Assessment, released in 2018 by the U.S. Global Change Research Program, says, “The assumption that current and future climate conditions will resemble the recent past is no longer valid.”