Flood insurance

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.