9 in 10 American Homeowners Don’t Have Flood Insurance, ValuePenguin.com Finds

PR Newswire

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 Homeowners with Flood Insurance	Rank (1st indicates the state with the most widespread coverage)	Yearly Flood Insurance Premium	Difference from Average	Flood Insurance Cost Rank (1st indicates the state paying 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 Columbia	1.60%	36	$724	3%	15
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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