Climate Change Is Upending The Home Insurance Market
Summary
Climate change is severely disrupting the home insurance market across the U.S., leading to soaring premiums and policy cancellations in states like Florida and Colorado. This crisis, driven by increasingly frequent and intense natural disasters, makes obtaining a mortgage difficult and is causing property values to decline in high-risk areas. Experts discuss state-level "last resort" insurance programs and how these direct financial impacts may force a broader societal reckoning with climate change.Episode description
You can’t get a mortgage without home insurance. But in some parts of the country, it’s becoming harder and harder to find a plan, as insurance companies drop homeowners and pull out of entire states, as flooding, wildfires, and storms become more frequent and intense. Host Flora Lichtman talks to reporters Jessica Meszaros and Rachel Cohen, who have been covering this issue in Florida and Colorado. Flora then speaks with Benjamin Keys, who studies the impact of climate change on the real estate market, about the future of home ownership in a world increasingly unsettled by climate change.
Guests:
Rachel Cohen is the Mountain West News Bureau reporter for KUNC.
Dr. Benjamin Keys studies the impact of climate change on the real estate market at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.
Jessica Meszaros is a climate change and environment reporter for WUSF in Tampa, Florida.
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