9 in 10 American Homeowners Don't Have Flood Insurance, ValuePenguin.com Finds
NEW YORK, May 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Floods are the nation's most common natural disaster, but nearly 9 in 10 American families aren't adequately insured against the costly damages caused by flooding. A new ValuePenguin.com study has found that just 7 percent of American homeowners have a flood insurance policy, compared to the 91 percent of owner-occupied homes who have homeowners insurance.
With the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season less than a month away, the need for flood insurance has never been more urgent. Nearly three-fourths of U.S. adults think destructive weather events such as hurricanes are getting worse, and over 40 percent of Americans have encountered weather events that caused property damage or forced them to evacuate their homes. Yet flood insurance coverage ratios vary widely by state.
Key Findings:
-- The states with the highest percentage of homeowners with flood
insurance are Louisiana (44 percent), Florida (36 percent), Hawaii (23
percent), South Carolina (16 percent) and New Jersey (11 percent).
-- The states with the lowest rate of coverage are Minnesota (0.6 percent),
Utah (0.6 percent), Michigan (0.8 percent), Wisconsin (0.8 percent) and
Ohio (1.1 percent).
-- The average cost of a flood insurance policy through the National Flood
Insurance Program (NFIP) is $699 per year, but flood insurance premiums
vary significantly across the country.
-- The five most expensive states to purchase flood insurance are
Connecticut, Rhode Island, Vermont, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania,
where premiums are 69-100 percent above the national average. On the
flip side, NFIP policies in Texas, Maryland and Florida are the cheapest
in the nation, and cost 17-21 percent below the national average.
ValuePenguin calculated share of homeowners with a flood insurance policy by comparing NFIP policies in force (source: FEMA) to owner-occupied housing units (source: U.S. Census Bureau). This analysis does not include private flood insurance policies, which make up a minimal share of the overall flood insurance market.
To view the full report, visit: https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance.
States Most and Least Prepared for a Flood
---
State
Share of
Rank (1st
Yearly Difference
Flood
Homeowners indicates the Flood from Insurance Cost
with Flood state with the Insurance Average Rank (1st
Insurance most Premium indicates the
widespread state paying
coverage) the least)
---
Louisiana 43.50% 1 $664 -5% 5
---
Florida 35.50% 2 $550 -21% 1
---
Hawaii 22.80% 3 $673 -4% 8
---
South Carolina 15.50% 4 $672 -4% 7
---
New Jersey 11.10% 5 $961 37% 33
---
Delaware 10.40% 6 $724 4% 15
---
Texas 10.20% 7 $581 -17% 3
---
Mississippi 8.50% 8 $695 -1% 12
---
Rhode Island 5.60% 9 $1,389 99% 49
---
North Dakota 5.40% 10 $677 -3% 9
---
North Carolina 5.20% 11 $814 16% 20
---
Virginia 5.00% 12 $737 5% 17
---
New York 4.60% 13 $1,155 65% 46
---
Maryland 4.50% 14 $573 -18% 2
---
Alabama 4.30% 15 $687 -2% 11
---
Connecticut 4.20% 16 $1,395 100% 51
---
Massachusetts 3.90% 17 $1,251 79% 48
---
Georgia 3.70% 18 $684 -2% 10
---
California 3.50% 19 $806 15% 19
---
Oregon 3.00% 20 $889 27% 28
---
West Virginia 2.90% 21 $1,104 58% 45
---
New Mexico 2.50% 22 $843 21% 21
---
Arkansas 2.20% 23 $847 21% 22
---
New Hampshire 2.20% 24 $1,060 52% 42
---
Washington 2.20% 25 $901 29% 30
---
Nevada 2.10% 26 $721 3% 14
---
Maine 2.10% 27 $1,065 52% 43
---
Arizona 2.10% 28 $666 -5% 6
---
Vermont 2.10% 29 $1,391 99% 50
---
Nebraska 1.90% 30 $998 43% 36
---
Idaho 1.90% 31 $746 7% 18
---
Kentucky 1.80% 32 $971 39% 34
---
Montana 1.70% 33 $704 1% 13
---
Tennessee 1.70% 34 $861 23% 25
---
Pennsylvania 1.70% 35 $1,176 68% 47
---
District of 1.60% 36 $724 3% 15
Columbia
---
South Dakota 1.60% 37 $931 33% 32
---
Colorado 1.60% 38 $856 22% 23
---
Alaska 1.60% 39 $902 29% 31
---
Iowa 1.50% 40 $1,045 49% 40
---
Oklahoma 1.40% 41 $856 22% 23
---
Missouri 1.30% 42 $1,071 53% 44
---
Indiana 1.30% 43 $999 43% 37
---
Kansas 1.30% 44 $882 26% 26
---
Wyoming 1.30% 45 $888 27% 27
---
Illinois 1.30% 46 $1,045 49% 39
---
Ohio 1.10% 47 $1,047 50% 41
---
Wisconsin 0.80% 48 $973 39% 35
---
Michigan 0.80% 49 $1,008 44% 38
---
Utah 0.60% 50 $654 -6% 4
---
Minnesota 0.60% 51 $900 29% 29
---
About ValuePenguin.com: ValuePenguin.com, now part of LendingTree (NASDAQ: TREE), is a personal finance website that conducts in-depth research and provides objective analysis to help guide consumers to the best financial decisions. ValuePenguin focuses on value, assessing whether the return of a particular decision is worth the cost or risk of that option, and how this stacks up with the other possible choices they may have. For more information, please visit www.valuepenguin.com, like our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter @ValuePenguin.
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Media Contacts:
Divya Sangam
646 693 8445
divya@valuepenguin.com
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SOURCE ValuePenguin
