Flood insurance is what might be one of the most important coverages you can get nowadays. A single flood policy can provide flood protection for thousands of dollars. However, did you know that not only residential homes and commercial buildings can get flood insurance?

How to Protect Flood Insurance Premiums as an Apartment Building Owner

In this article, we want to talk about how you could protect your flood insurance premiums as a landlord, or apartment building owner, and make flood insurance easier for you, your property, and your renters.

Flood Insurance for Apartment Building Owners

When it comes to flood insurance as an apartment building owner, you want to make the most out of your investments. Considering how most of your properties will be one of the sources of your income, it's best to help them avoid getting ravaged by flooding. This will not only impact your property but also the potential customers you may have in the future.

How to Protect Flood Insurance Premiums as an Apartment Building Owner

So let's talk about the things you can do to make utilize your flood insurance best. We will talk about the following things:

  • Blanket Flood Insurance Coverage
  • Loss of Use
  • Replacement Cost & Elevation of Structure
By understanding these, you will also get to understand how this can be helpful for the profitability of your property by understanding how your flood risks can impact your property long-term.
 
How to Protect Flood Insurance Premiums as an Apartment Building Owner

Blanket Coverage

First, it's important to know the type of flood insurance coverage you need to get for your property. This may be through individual/specific flood coverage or blanket flood coverage.

The difference between these two is that individual coverage is only specific to a single property. So the building and personal property coverage with your flood policy will only be applicable to a single structure. This is not really ideal if you have multiple properties.

How to Protect Flood Insurance Premiums as an Apartment Building Owner

On the other hand, you may be able to get a blanket flood insurance policy; which really eliminates most of the limits you will see on an individual flood policy alone.

Blanket insurance means that you may get the same flood insurance coverage for multiple properties with just a single policy. This means that flood coverage for flood damages may apply to more than one type of property at the same location or the same type of property at multiple locations.

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It's important to note however that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) generally don't offer blanket flood insurance coverage however you can still get one through other private flood insurance companies.

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Loss of Use Coverage

Now, let's jump into one of the things that you should be looking to include with your flood insurance policy: loss of use coverage.

Loss of use is generally an additional coverage that you can get with flood insurance. The purpose of this coverage is to provide you with actual cash or any form of reimbursement for you as the property owner of a rental property.

When your property gets hit by flood, as the repairs are ongoing, you won't really have use of the property. With this coverage, instead of not being able to earn anything as the repairs are ongoing, the flood insurance policy may provide you with whatever potential income you are losing during that period.

Replacement Cost & Elevation of Structure

Last on our list is the replacement cost value of your property and why protecting it from flood damage can directly impact the profitability of your property as an apartment building owner.

How to Protect Flood Insurance Premiums as an Apartment Building Owner

Replacement cost is simply the amount or cost of the property's structure if you were to sell it on the market. For flood insurance, this is generally considered because the replacement cost will be the basis for your flood insurance rates. So if you have a higher or more expensive amount for the building, you may also start to see some form of an increase in your rates.

It's equally important to also consider the elevation of your property because this generally shifts your risk of flooding. An elevation of your property will also help show that you are at a reduced risk for flooding.

This is why despite elevation certificates being no longer required for flood insurance, it still is a helpful document in lowering your risk and sometimes even removing your property from a flood zone.

Get Elevation Certificate

Protecting Your Premium Rates

When you start processing the purchase of flood insurance, it's best to consider these three things in order to protect your premium rates. This is really important especially if you have a building that sits in a high-risk area where the chance of flooding is not only high but also sometimes unpredictable.

As a property owner of apartment buildings, you may want to make the most out of your flood insurance coverage. For the federal flood insurance side of the market, you may start seeing a max of $500,000 on your building coverage.

Although the private flood insurance market has more flexibility with coverage amounts, meaning you can go further than $500,000 for your building coverage, this won't really guarantee that you can lock in on your premium rates.

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One of the biggest risks of a flood-prone property is that you also lose interest and appeal to your potential customers. If people start to see that your property is a high-risk one when it comes to flooding and damages, renters might choose another option. This in turn will hurt the profitability of your property long-term.

Find My Flood Risk & Flood Rate

If you are ready to take the next steps to get the right flood insurance coverage then there are three simple steps.

  • Fill out this form — Get A Quote
  • Talk with our flood education specialist.
  • Get back to the important things in your life.

Got more flood insurance questions? Visit our Flood Learning Center below to know more:

Flood Insurance Guru - Flood Learning Center

 

 

2020 has been a year that no one will ever forget. There are three things we want to look at in 2020 and how they could impact the future of coastal private flood insurance.

  1. Covid
  2. Social Injustice
  3. Hurricanes

 

                                                           Covid

When Covid hit in March of 2020 it caused many businesses to come to a crashing halt.

The hospitality industry has basically been non existent and you couldn't pay someone to get on a cruise ship. Airlines are barely surviving. As this happened businesses turned to their insurance companies for coverage.

However many were surprised to find out that most insurance policies don 't cover this type of disaster. Government put pressure on insurance companies to provide coverage. However its difficult to provide insurance coverage when a premium was not charged for a risk.

As these businesses started to close they started to cancel their policies. This started to impact insurance companies as businesses were no longer needing insurance for a closed business. While this was a minimum impact on the bottom line when you add the next two things it creates a major problem.

 

                                 Social Injustice

2020 has seen the rise of social injustice and unrest across many parts of the country. Portland Oregon has seen many businesses burned and even Atlanta Georgia saw businesses damaged after a man was killed in an altercation with police. 2020 was problem the first time in 50 years that you have seen moratoriums put in place by insurance companies for selling business insurance.

At one point Target had to close its Minnesota stores because of looting.

 

                                                Hurricane Season

Now onto the third maybe the biggest thing to impact insurance companies in 2020. The 2020 hurricane season was predicted to be busy but no one predicted it to be this busy. In fact NOAA has had to make several adjustments to their hurricane predictions for 2020.

As we write this blog at the end of October in 2020 we have had 27 named storms, 11 hurricanes have made landfall in the U.S. and 5 hurricanes have made landfall in Louisiana.

This ties the record for most landfalls in a year within one state. Florida set the same record in 2005.

Hurricane Sally, Marco, and Delta have all created major damage in the gulf states. In fact Delta and Sally made landfall only 15 miles a part.

Like most people in 2020 insurance companies are eating through their reserves fairly quickly and they are discovering that many of their risk models were off.

So what does this mean for coastal states like Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas.

In Mississippi we are already seeing some private carriers halt business completely and we have seen this in Louisiana for a few years. Texas has also had this issue since Harvey.

We could see this pattern start to work its way towards Florida and Alabama.

Does this mean flood insurance will not be available?

No

The National Flood Insurance Program is available for properties where communities participate. It just means that the private flood insurance options could be limited for a while.

This will be a crucial time for you to work with an insurance agency that can defend your risk?

What does this mean?

This means being able to show how a risk may have changed because of mitigation efforts even if it has flooded. We see customers rejected everyday because someone did not defend their property correctly.

If you have questions about what your flood insurance are in these areas then click here. You can also check out our

where we do daily flood education videos. You can also check out our

Remember we have an educational background in flood mitigation. This means we are here to help you understand your flood risks, flood insurance, and mitigating your property.

 

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Today, we want to answer one of the most asked questions ever since this new Risk Rating 2.0 program came into the picture when it comes to the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

Will my rates double with the Risk Rating 2.0 update?

Will My Flood Insurance Rates Double in Risk Rating 2.0?

Risk Rating 2.0

When it comes to this new update, one of the things that people may think about and be haunted by asking if this new Risk Rating 2.0 program means that flood insurance rates across the board will double.

Before we dwell too much on that question, we want to address first what is going to happen with the Risk Rating 2.0.

Just because it says "2.0" doesn't mean that your rates will double. 2.0 simply pertains to the fact that this is a newer version of federal flood insurance. Think of it as an app in your phone updating from an old version to a new one; sometimes it even goes up to 7.0, but it doesn't really mean that the app will be seven times bigger.

Will My Flood Insurance Rates Double in Risk Rating 2.0?

This new program is deemed equity in action as it aims to provide the most accurate flood insurance rates by using each property's unique flood risks. The new Risk Rating 2.0 program will start to look at multiple flood risk variables or factors in order to finalize your rates and this way it hopes to make give everyone a transparent flood insurance pricing for each property owner when they pay.

With the flood risk variables kicking in, your property's going to get a final flood risk score that covers addresses your risks and how they contributed to calculating your rate. We'd like to put it simply as "the fingerprint of your flood risks".

These flood risk variables will cover multiple areas concerning your property and the nature of floods. One of the biggest changes is that this new program will only look at flood zones as a regulatory reference. This means that flood zones will no longer impact rates, but can still demand you to get flood insurance if you're in the special flood hazard area (SFHA).

Rate Changes with Risk Rating 2.0

The truth is when it comes to flood insurance policies and their respective flood insurance premium, Risk Rating 2.0 will can either cut your premium rates in half or create a rate increase that will double the price of flood insurance. All of this is dependent on your flood risk score.

Get Your Flood Risk Score Here!

The things that will determine your flood risk and flood insurance rates will cover both things from the legacy program and new things with the Risk Rating 2.0. We've put down a list of the things that are staying and the new kids in the block when in the federal flood insurance scene.

The remaining features are as follows:

The new things that will come with the Risk Rating 2.0 are as follows:

  • Types of floods. This can be either pluvial or the accumulated water due to rain, runoff of collected water that flows from higher areas, storm surge and coastal erosion, dam/levee damage or overflow, and even a combination of these things.
  • Flood frequency. How often do these floods happen on your property or in your area?
  • First-floor height and elevation of the structure. A new feature that determines your flood risk score is the distance between the ground (grade) from your first floor or the first habitable floor of your property.
  • Flood Risk Mitigation Measures made on the property. Is the lowest floor above the base flood elevation? Are there enough flood openings to let floodwaters through?
  • Replacement Cost. How much will it cost insurance companies to rebuild or repair your home when damaged?

Will My Flood Insurance Rates Double in Risk Rating 2.0?

Does this mean that higher-value homes will be the ones to double the cost of flood insurance since they will get annual premium increases and flood insurance policyholders with lower-value homes will be the only ones to pay half of their flood insurance?

If we really look at Risk Rating 2.0 closely, this will address each and every individual property's flood risk score. So the higher the risk of flooding within your property, the higher the increase you'll expect. Right now, we're currently seeing an estimate of 70% of the registered properties (both residential properties and commercial ones) will get an increase in flood insurance rates with the Risk Rating 2.0.

This 70% doesn't really contain solely higher-valued homes and the other 30% who might not see a price increase are lower-valued homes. This is a complete mix of the overall population across the country. It can really be hard to tell whether or not you're going to be one of the homeowners who will get their flood premiums cost cut in half since we're yet to see any impact of implementation from FEMA and the NFIP.

Will My Flood Insurance Rates Double in Risk Rating 2.0?

What is important to note here is that there will be places and properties that might even see a double-digit rate increase with their flood policies from FEMA and the NFIP.

That said, I think the best thing to really ask is how well you're protected because we're already seeing that floods can happen anywhere at any given time. Even low-risk flood areas like New York City, Atlanta, and Waverly saw huge flood damage even though they're well outside the flood-prone areas.

Make sure that you are protected at all times and that you also get to protect your property from floodwaters. If you have any questions on Risk Rating 2.0, how to determine your flood risk score or anything about floods and flood insurance, reach out to us by clicking below.

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We also encourage that you visit our Flood Learning Center where we try to answer your questions on flood insurance.

Flood Insurance Guru | Service | Knowledge Base

Remember, we have an educational background in flood mitigation which lets up help you understand the level of risk that you have when it comes to flooding, your flood insurance, and protecting your property long-term.

The Build Back Better Act has been going back and forth on whether or not it aims to tax the higher-earning households or not. A lot of things are coming with President Biden's expansive social and environmental bill that aims to create a better quality of life for families across the United States. This includes providing and helping American families during crisis especially after what we experienced due to COVID-19 and addressing climate change impacts to our communities.

Does Build Back Better Mean Better Flood Insurance?

In the midst of the shape-shifting nature of political parties, the initial intent to address the risks and dangers of climate change is being scaled down. We won't dwell into the politics of it all despite it having a firm grip on how Build Back Better goes; that's a story for another day.

Will Build Back Better really build a better structure against climate change and really address the needs of our country's first line of defense against floods? Is Build Back Better just building a broken flood future for America?

What Build Back Better Includes

In the article of MSNBC on explaining the coverages of this act, they covered the following: $380 Billion will be for Child Care and Education, $555 Billion will be for Climate Change and Clean Energy Investments; this generally covers the $12,500 incentive for those looking to buy an electric car like Tesla or install solar panels. Capping prescription drugs costs at $2,000 per year for seniors as well as including Medicare coverage for hearing benefits, and $200 Billion for child tax credit extension to name a few.

Does Build Back Better Mean Better Flood Insurance?

However, as the bill was passed a lot of things got changed such as taking out the dental and vision coverage, free community college, lower prescription drug costs, and the paid family leave which was something that public polls were really hoping for.

The changes also include a significant scaling down of funding for the risk mitigation for climate change which is, to be honest, what Build Back Better was for.

Does Build Back Better Include Flood Risk?

Flood Map

We want to focus on the significant changes on how Build Back Better addresses one of the key concerns with climate change and safeties of families across the country: the federal flood insurance.

Build Back Better was initially drafted to cover $3 Trillion to ensure that all items are ticked by dotting all the i's and crossing all the t's, but across its 12-week course, a lot of things were cut down and only about $1.75 billion was approved by the senate. Simply put, this meant that some areas' overall costs were also lowered.

Does Build Back Better Mean Better Flood Insurance?

Initially, the original Build Back Better draft provided $3 Billion to improve the flood mapping hence addressing the overall understanding of the flood hazard of communities with or without an extreme event like disasters, hurricanes, and things like that. This proposed amount intends to create a system in which federal flood insurance will be able to provide you and your community with updated flood risks based on the flood mapping.

You might be thinking, this number's too big just to address flood mapping in which we would say the Association of State Floodplain Managers stated that FEMA would need between $3 billion and $12 billion to address this concern with flood mapping across the country.

This intends to prepare for the impacts of climate change especially with the frequency of flooding and its severity. With this funding, flood hazard mapping will not only address your current flood risk but also your future flood risk. This can really be helpful especially for disadvantaged communities who don't even have a flood map. In some cases, some flood maps take 15 years to get updated.

According to E&E News, the approved bill ended up cutting down the funding for this area to $600 million. That amount is just 20% of the proposed costs needed to make sure that flood mapping will be accurate and up-to-date.

Does Build Back Better Mean Better Flood Insurance?

It's important to keep in mind that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) don't have a flood map for all and communities across the United States. The impact of cutting down the funding for this area can mean that your community will still have to wait a year or maybe even more just to get a flood map that reflects your current flood risks.

Additionally, what officials should know is that flood maps are crucial in understanding where the water is coming from. This also helps everyone understand where and how to build developments as this direct changes how floodwater behaves especially for vulnerable communities like those surrounded by rivers or the coasts.

The thing is flood hazard mapping isn't just for everyone to know their flood zones for flood insurance, but also to understand first the risk of flooding in the area.

Flood Insurance Premiums

Another area of flood insurance that Build Back Better wanted to address is allotting $1 Billion for subsidizing flood insurance premium cost within the federal flood market. This intends to allow low-and-moderate income households to be able to buy flood insurance from FEMA and the NFIP. 

Generally, flood insurance with FEMA and the NFIP averages at about $1,000 per year, and with the Risk Rating 2.0 Program, this number can get more expensive for policies. It's important to keep in mind that a lot of people who aren't required to get flood insurance don't buy one because of its costs.

Does Build Back Better Mean Better Flood Insurance?

This funding helps get the program running and helps people understand that the cost of flood insurance can be cheap without the risks of not getting enough coverages. A lot of homeowners would be buying cheap flood insurance, not knowing that it won't fit their coverage needs. People do this to avoid the well-known affordability costs with FEMA and the NFIP.

However, this funding for the financial assistance when purchasing a federal flood insurance policy was also cut down to $600 million as well

The Future of NFIP

Looking at the bright side of the fence, it's still a good thing that federal flood insurance will still be included in the conversation as we move forward with the Build Back Better act.

Despite the funding being significantly scaled-down, this additional funding for FEMA and the NFIP can address the issues within the federal side of flood insurance. However, this action of scaling down what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) really needs makes one ask...

When will flood risk become a priority for the government? For now, only time can tell as the Senate modifies this part of Build Back Better.

If you have any questions on how this will impact you, about your flood insurance, or maybe your flood insurance is trash and you want to update, click below to contact us.

The Flood Insurance Guru | 2054514294

You can also access our Flood Learning Center where we try to answer your common questions about floods, flood insurance, and everything in between.

Flood Insurance Guru | Service | Knowledge Base

Remember, we have an educational background in flood mitigation which lets us help you understand your flood risks, flood insurance, and mitigating your property long-term.

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Minnesota is a gorgeous state with a lot of history. Some of that history includes some historical floods.

I mean its called the land of 10,000 lakes.

So are there really 10,000 lakes?

That is a question we hear all the time about Minnesota.

Nope there is actually more than than that. It has been said that there are more than 12,000 lakes of at least 10 acres. depending on what you define a lake us there could be considered more than 15,000 lakes.

That is a lot of water for one state. As you can imagine the land of 10,000 lakes could cause you as a property owner 10,000 flood problems but is your flood premium one of them?

That's what we want to talk about today. You can also checkout our podcast below where we discuss this matter.

 

Its very common for Minnesota to have flood issues especially since it is home to the Mississippi river, St. Lawrence river, and Red River North.

Minnesota typically gets a lot of spring runoff from its snow melt. It gets more snow every year than most other parts of the country.

So when this snow melts it has to go somewhere and one of these 10,000 lakes is usually one of the places it ends up.

Some of these lakes maybe considered closed basin lakes.

So what is a closed basin lake?

Closed basin lakes can have a major impact on your flood insurance options in Minnesota.

So are you going to be dealing with $10,000 flood premiums in Minnesota because of these issues?

Maybe or maybe not

Lets look at some factors that can drive flood insurance rates in Minnesota.

Many older homes in Minnesota have full basements which can have a major impact on flood insurance premiums.

Understanding the difference between full basements and walkout basements is important.

This could be the difference between a $800 flood premium and a $2000 flood premium.

Something else to understand is what flood zone you are in.

There are three main flood zones in Minnesota. The videos below give you a brief description of each one of them.

 

 

Its important to understand which flood zones will require flood insurance and which ones will not. Its also important to understand that being in a low risk flood zone does not mean your property will not flood.

Now maybe you have a low flood premium or maybe you have a high flood premium in Minnesota. If you want to look at your different options simply click here.

You can also find more resources on our YouTube channel where we do daily flood education videos.

Remember we have an educational background in flood mitigation. This means we are here to help you understand your flood risks, flood insurance, and mitigating your property long term.

 

 

 

 

Online real estate sites like Zillow and Realtor.com have had a major impact on the real estate market over the last 5 years. You can almost find out instantly what your house will be sold for, however there are some misleading things on these sites. Sometimes the square footage might be wrong, the year built, or even the foundation type.

As you can imagine these things could have a big impact on what you could sell your house for in Huntsville Alabama. Having the lowest home inventory in 20 years can also magnify this issue.

However these things could be having an even bigger impact on your flood insurance premiums.

Everybody uses these sites now from realtors to home buyers to insurance agents. It makes it very easy to get the information you need to do a home insurance quote or a flood insurance quote if you are an insurance agent.

You might even be a potential buyer using this information to get your flood insurance quote.

STOP right there that is the wrong way!

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As we mentioned before these sites are not always 100% accurate. For example we were just reviewing a listing in Huntsville Alabama for potential home buyer where the property was in a special flood hazard area. We were reviewing everything on the home and noticed when it comes to flood insurance some things were different.

  1. Foundation type
  2. Year built
  3. Update details
  4. Estimated value

You see the North Alabama MLS and the online sites had the home listed with a basement, but when we reviewed it there was not a single side of the property that was underground. FEMA's definition of a basement is a property that has all sides of the home below grade.

When it comes to flood insurance this home was actually considered to be on a slab. Had this home been quoted with a basement it could have had some major exclusions for coverages on the first level as well as significantly higher flood premiums.

Now lets use the other example that confuses alot of people and that is when its listed as a basement when its really a crawlspace.

This mistake could have a significant difference on flood premiums. Sometimes the mistake is not caught for a few years. If you have a flood insurance policy through the National Flood Insurance Program they normally request pictures which can prevent this from happening. However if its a private flood insurance policy they may not request these documents and there is no getting this flood insurance premium back from previous years.

So how can updated details impact the property?

So say the site says the home was built in 1950 which makes it a pre firm structure but it was updated in 2004. It list many of the things that were updated but what it doesn't tell you is the home was torn down to the foundation and redone.

As a result FEMA no longer considers this a pre firm structure but instead it is a substantially improved structure. As a result the year built is considered to be 2004. Since the home is in a special flood hazard area an elevation certificate would be required if you decided to do a policy with the National Flood Insurance Program. The rating system could also be completely different since it is no longer a Pre Firm structure.

Estimated value might be one of the most common things that is off with these sites. Now it's always recommended that you reach out to a realtor so you can get accurate values of the market value of the home. Using the estimated value on these sites as an insurance agent can be very dangerous. Whether it is flood insurance or something else this could easily underinsure a property owner. Then what happens is when a claim occurs they may not get the coverage need to replace or repair the home.

This is one major complaint that property owners had in east Alabama on Weiss lake and Lake Logan Martin after the 2019 flooding event.

Many of these property owners either had the loan amount listed on the flood insurance or what they thought the homes value should be. The problem with alot of these sites is they use market value on these amounts and for flood insurance replacement cost is used.

So whats the difference?

Market value is the value someone thinks they could sell their home for.

Replacement cost is what it would actually take to rebuild the home.

As you can imagine when its a bad real estate market there could be a huge difference in these amounts.

So let's say that you bought that house on Lake Logan Martin in 2010 not long after the market crash. You got a great deal on it and got a great rate on the flood insurance.

It might not be as a good of a deal as you think. You might want to pull out that flood insurance policy in see what amount of coverage is listed on there.

I imagine you only have $75,000- $100,000 in coverage when you should have $150,000-$175,000 in coverage. You might not have that much coverage we recently had a client come to us that only had $85,000 in coverage on a 3000 square foot house. As you can imagine this $85,000 in coverage would not have gone very far on a 3000 square foot house.

So we have addressed some issues when using these online real estate sites. Remember while these tools can be great for getting information, you always want to verify this information with a licensed realtor.

So if you have questions about making sure your flood insurance policy is accurate or learning more about what flood insurance options in Huntsville Alabama are available then visit our website. You can also check out our daily flood education videos on our YouTube channel or Facebook page. If you are on the run then check out our daily podcast here.

 

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Low interest rates can be a great thing for people purchasing homes or refinancing homes. However long term low interest rates can be bad for company profits. They can also have a big impact on flood insurance premiums. 

Impacts of low interest rates

stock market price display

As mentioned before low interest rates can be great for people purchasing homes or refinancing homes. However long term low interest rates can have a big impact on the bottom line for insurance companies. Most companies that take money for services are looking for ways to invest these dollars to help their bottom line and growth. When interest rates are high these companies can make a lot of profit for the company. This is big for flood insurance companies because it allows them to keep rates stable. 

However when rates stay long term combined with alot of claim payout it can create a very unstable market. What happens is they are not making the money on their investments the way they need to and they are paying out a lot of $$$ for claims. As a result this has a big impact on the profits for not just private flood insurance companies but really any insurance company. As a result they have to find other ways of generating revenues and making sure they can pay these claims out.

Will Flood Insurance Rates Change

So many times the only other area for them to generate these $$$ is by increasing flood insurance premiums. 2019 is creating one of these possible situations with interest rates going down and flood insurance claim payouts being very high. So when your flood insurance comes up for renewal this is something you will want to pay attention to, especially if you live in areas that have been hit by flooding.

Some of the areas that could see the hardest hit from this might be Nebraska City, Nebraska, Tulsa Oklahoma, areas around Lake Keystone, and Fort Smith Arkansas.

 

If you have questions about how this might be impacting you please visit our website Flood Insurance Guru for more information.  You can also check out our YouTube channel or Facebook page where we do daily flood education videos.