Do I Need Flood Insurance?

Answer for "Do I need flood Insurance?"

Michael Marretti, Real Estate Agent

Arbor Realty Inc.

There comes a time when every zealous homeowner asks himself – usually at a very inconvenient hour, like 3 am: Do I need Flood Insurance?

The answer is: probably.

Here’s why: Most homeowners insurance policy, renter, landlord, and business insurance policies exclude coverage for flooding. And there used to be a time when one would only recommend flood insurance to people living near the beach and on the coast. But that time has long passed. A flood can be caused by a number of things. Not only by water surges caused by a high tide, but also due to outdated sewer and urbanization projects. With the rise of climate change and human action in leveling forests, overbuilding the land, and increasing use of asphalt all reduced the soil's natural ability to absorb excess water, compounding the risk of disastrous flooding. Combining that with the fact that sea levels have been rising and rains have become heavier and more frequent, floods have become more and more common in every area of the country. A heavy prolonged rain can be enough to flood sections of a city.

So, do you need Flood Insurance? We’ll say this: you should learn about your area’s history with floods to see if it’s something very urgent. But even if there hasn’t been a lot of floods, if you can; do it. Don’t save pennies: In 2017 alone 116 people died in America because of floods. Yes, a life is something you can insure but can never take back and it’s an extreme example; but let’s tone it down then: if that much people died because of floods, can you imagine the number of homes that get damaged due to flood? Here’s another scary number: over 90% of all presidential-declared disasters in the United States are flood related.

Flood insurance is such an important thing that, in some areas, is not a matter of “Do I need Flood Insurance” – it’s mandatory! Annapolis Real Estate Agents, for instance, will be quick to point out to home buyers that they should include flood insurance in their budget to figure out how much they can offer on a house and determine how much they can pay on a mortgage, because most parts of the city require flood insurance and any mortgage company that is not willing to lose their asset will force you to get one in order to lend you the money.

If you need some additional resource, check our Worst Cities for Natural Disasters article!