The home insurance market is crumbling. These owners are paying the price
The home insurance market is crumbling in New Orleans, leaving Alfredo Herrera with few options for coverage — and skyrocketing insurance premiums.
Herrera, 35, works in finance for a local bank. He bought his 900-square-foot home in New Orleans’ Mid-City neighborhood in 2020 for $270,000, and lives there with his partner.
In 2022, he paid $1,600 a year for home insurance. But last July, his insurer canceled his coverage, saying it was leaving Louisiana.
In the past, acquiring or keeping homeowners’ insurance didn’t present much of a problem.
But as climate change increases the frequency and severity of extreme weather, insurers — especially those in areas most impacted by floods and fires — are raising their premiums, or pulling out altogether, impacting the affordability and availability of home and fire insurance.
It’s almost like the insurance industry is unsustainable in a world where catastrophe is the norm.
Exactly. It won't be long before there will be very few places where insuring homes that aren't at risk of weather disasters due to climate change will be possible.
We need a law that returns part of their premiums when a company takes them and runs off.
I know this isn’t logical in the broken system. But it rings true on a human level.