Flood insurance

The National Flood Insurance Program, estimated to cover over 4 million homeowners, is set to lapse next Friday along with the federal budget.

Southeast homeowners affected by the storms last fall submitted a combined over 78,500 flood insurance claims to the National Flood Insurance Program.

The FEMA-operated program has over 4.7 million policies in force, and lawmakers have kept it intact via dozens of short-term extensions since 2017.

Financial profiles of borrowers in the coastal areas where insurance coverage is required vary significantly from at-risk homeowners inland, CFPB's analysis found.

Homeowners in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy have already seen growth in their property values lag behind the national median.

Mortgage professionals are focusing on housing policies and the Federal Reserve this November.

Flood maps, which designate areas where mortgage borrowers must buy policies are often out of date and don't focus on the danger of rain-caused issues.

Over 4 million residents in the region, both coastal and inland, face dangers similar to residents in Hurricane-weary Florida, Louisiana and Texas.

The incidence of at least four flood insurance payouts totaling $20,000-plus, or at least two totaling more than the building's market value, is growing.

The disaster underscores Americans' dangerously low levels of flood insurance coverage, especially away from coastal areas. 

The program lapsing would've precluded mortgage applicants from closing on home loans without the required coverage in federally designated flood zones.

Awareness of disaster risk has increased in the public and private sectors, and it appears to be prompting more interest in home improvements in particular.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency has agreed to more regular checks on the government-sponsored enterprises' flood compliance, which impacts mortgage companies.

A Billings, Montana-based First Interstate Bank agreed to a five-figure penalty to resolve charges it engaged in National Flood Insurance Act violations.

A Congressional Budget Office study looks under the hood at homeowners insurance and considers strategies like expanding the federal coverage beyond floods.

The Congressional Budget Office acknowledged limitations in its research of expected flood damage data.

"Lax regulation and monitoring of property insurers makes Florida mortgage markets far more exposed to climate risk than people might think," said Parinitha Sastry, an author of a working paper by researchers at Harvard University, Columbia University and the Federal Reserve.

Prevention through new building standards and mapping technology aim to keep home insurance rates down but mortgage bankers see challenges.

The National Flood Insurance Program would ideally be approved yearly, but instead it has gone through 29 reauthorizations since 2017.

Lawmakers criticized the Biden administration's Risk Rating 2.0 effort — which was meant to reduce insurance premiums by developing more refined models — as ineffective, arguing that the program has increased rate premiums in vulnerable areas.