How home ownership insurance is becoming unaffordable for US citizens | DW News

Natural disasters are sending insurance rates skyrocketing in many US coastal areas. Follow us to the south of Louisiana where the ongoing insurance crisis may force people to leave home.

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[GuyIncognito]

What a concept. People who take higher risks should pay for that choice instead of forcing everyone else to pay for their choice.

[jimschachtschneider]

The argument has long been "making changes to reduce climate change would be too expensive and cost too many jobs" - this is the alternative.

[SK-ltso]

Nope
Excessive repair costs and humans living where they shouldn't are the problem.

[feels]

It’s not a broken system – the whole system is for profit, not for protection

[tomlxyz]

It seems to me after hearing stories and news over the years that in the US the houses were usually just rebuild without any significant modifications for future catastrophes. Also i feel like some risky areas should just be depopulated unless the people are willing to deal with the burden themselves

[wanderer]

Those "hurricane-proof" houses are hardly hurricane-proof even now, and hurricanes will become even stronger. Why Americans are building houses the way they did this for hundreds of years? There is a lot of examples of really strong house projects across the world.

[oldsteamguy]

It would be great to see how well the upgraded homes survive after the next hurricane.

[mfuson]

Insurance will be unaffordable for nearly everyone very soon enough. It's impractical to continue rebuilding in areas that keep getting devastated.
No one wants to lose the place they call home, but mother nature doesn't care what you call it. She's going to do what she's going to do.

[D-xlxy]

Build in risky areas, should expect to pay more. More fair than expecting others to subsidize.

[lrs]

Homeowner insurance companies happily collect premiums but are unwilling to provide coverage

[ryqsxfk]

*Build with concrete and steel and get rid of debt.*

[madcow]

Some rates are arbitrary. Geico made major increases to my car insurance. They said it was caused by uninsured illegal immigrants in my state, even though the uninsured driver portion didn't increase. 5 years later, my new car insurance company is still cheaper.

[hape]

I wonder why Americans are surprised? With health insurance, it's been the same for decades: If the risk is too high (pre-existing conditions), you get a refusal or horrendous premiums. Welcome to capitalism! Maybe it wasn't such a good idea to leave everything to profit-oriented private companies after all?

[Nauta]

Its almost like insurance shouldnt be a private commodity. And instead be a basic government program. Because yeah, when a serious event happens and wipes out a bunch of houses. The company should not be legally allowed to just dip out and not do what they were paid to do for decades.

[whirltraveller]

Seemingly the only longterm answer is for specific anti hurricane designs like roof pitch and proper construction. It seems to me from observation is that poor design and shoddy construction contribute to the situation.

[GaasubaMeskhenet]

Why Are We Still Building Flat Sided Buildings In Windy Areas

[oatbear]

Unfortunately, the "area that they call home" has become significantly more dangerous in the pas years and will only get worse. There's no ripoff, it's just that the situation has changed. Building better or move elsewhere really are the only options. Any climate change measures are already too late to save the current houses, and will only work to reduce problems two or so decades out. If we manage to stick with them that is.

[dpharr]

The government needs to stop incentivizing people to build on the beach or river flood plains

[lg]

Talk to people who grew up in some of these cities. In the 70s and 80s a lot of those lands were labeled not buildable because of higher risk of exposure to natural disasters. Clearly developers paid off the right people to get building permits. I watched an interview last year where a woman in Florida has had three homes totaled due to hurricanes, and she still chooses to keep buying houses in the same area. If I were an insurance company, I would pull out too

[vladnickul]

All insurance companies should be state owned.






Oh and most american homes build as a modern take on a 1 milion dollar shithut