Opinion: Our property insurance crisis has been a long time coming
Disaster resilience is a popular term these days when it comes to all types of disasters. It can mean different things to different people.
In practical terms, it can be defined as disaster mitigation. That means doing what you can to prevent or reduce the impact of a disaster when it occurs. More specifically, it means choosing where, what and how to build in the future. Do you invest the extra 2% of the cost of a building to make it more disaster-resilient?
With the cost of housing continuing to go up and up, most people are willing to sacrifice disaster resilience for stainless steel appliances and custom countertops in the kitchen. However, the day is rapidly approaching when another financial cost will dictate if someone can afford a new or existing home — that is the cost of property insurance.
Already, there are two areas of the U.S. experiencing rapid and significant increases in the cost of property insurance. These are homes and other buildings located in areas subject to hurricanes and wildfires. An increase of 40% in just one year is not unheard of. This is causing people to rethink what they can afford.
https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2023/10/30/holdeman-crisis-in-property-insurance-is-coming.html
