Weekly Roundup: Home Insurance Crisis is A Looming “Financial Time Bomb”... and Government Inaction is Making it Worse
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2025
Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com
Weekly Roundup: Home Insurance Crisis is A Looming “Financial Time Bomb”... and Government Inaction is Making it Worse
Each week, the Insurance Fairness Project highlights the latest developments in the national climate-driven property insurance crisis.
This week, new reporting highlighted how the ongoing home insurance crisis in America is undermining the housing market and posing a risk to the entire U.S. economy. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is cutting funding to FEMA and discontinuing data tracking on the cost of disasters. State legislators are grasping for solutions, some more promising than others.
Our statement: “Rising insurance premiums are just the start of a much larger economic crisis being fueled by extreme weather disasters and climate change,” said TJ Helmstetter, spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “Insurers keep demanding more rate hikes, the cost of housing keeps rising, more disasters occur, and the cycle continues. Hardworking families have paid enough and shouldn’t be expected to bear the full cost of climate change on their shoulders. It’s time for government leaders to do something about it.”
Meanwhile, the Trump Administration is eliminating a critical NOAA database that tracks the costs of disasters.
New York Times: U.S. Government to Stop Tracking the Costs of Extreme Weather
The move would leave insurance companies, researchers and government policymakers without information to help understand the patterns of major disasters like hurricanes, drought or wildfires, and their economic consequences, starting this year. Those events are becoming more frequent or severe as the planet grows hotter, although not all disasters are linked to climate change.
Bloomberg: Why Trump’s Plan to Stop Tallying Weather Losses Matters to the Insurance Industry
It’s been a staple for the insurance and reinsurance industries, which otherwise need to invest in their own analysis or rely on costly aggregation services. It also provides emergency managers and elected officials with an ongoing look at how increasingly volatile weather made worse by climate change is colliding with heavy development in disaster-prone areas.
And at the same time, the Administration is continuing to gut FEMA, while the National Flood Insurance Program – which covers 4.7 million people – is set to expire.
The ouster of Cameron Hamilton, less than a month before the start of the hurricane season, came a day after he told lawmakers that FEMA was vital to communities “in their greatest times of need” and should not be eliminated.
Public Citizen: “The move to decapitate FEMA will be nothing short of devastating for millions of households relying on flood insurance or disaster relief. Removing the head of FEMA as hurricane season rapidly approaches is flabbergasting, even for the Trump administration. Dissolving FEMA would leave a void that state governments cannot pretend to fill. Over the next few months, disasters will strike the U.S. It is not a question of if—it is simply a question of where these disasters will happen.”
Our statement: “The National Flood Insurance Program is the most immediate example of how important federal protections are to guard Americans from extreme weather and fill private insurance gaps,” said TJ Helmstetter, spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “Polling shows that Americans want the government to do more to solve the home insurance crisis. Cuts to FEMA and dismantling NFIP move us in the wrong direction at the worst time.”
In states across the country, legislators are grasping for solutions – some more effectively than others – and communities are bracing for upcoming disasters.
Texas Tribune: Texas lawmakers want to lower homeowners' insurance costs, but have few options
Louisiana Illuminator: Gov. Landry might get the insurance laws he wants, but not without ruffling some Republican feathers
Miami Herald: Climate change is making South Florida's insurance crisis worse
Idaho Statesman: Wildfire risk is rising. Idaho tries to keep home insurance from going up in smoke
The Guardian: ‘We’re still living with the aftermath’: Floridians brace for fresh hurricane season
Grist: Coming this summer: Record-breaking heat and plenty of hurricanes
SPOTLIGHT ON CALIFORNIA: CalMatters: L.A. fire survivors accuse State Farm of delaying claims. Should it get OK for a rate hike?
The Insurance Department routinely investigates insurance companies’ response to disasters, which can lead to deeper examinations of their conduct and millions of dollars of additional payments. But this time around, State Farm is facing complaints as it happens to be seeking to raise its rates an average 17% for homeowners.
Resources
Insurance Fairness Project and Data For Progress: Polling – Voters Want Their Government to Address the Property Insurance Crisis
78% of voters are concerned about rising property insurance prices, with 40% saying they are “very concerned”
Public Citizen and the Revolving Door Project: Mapping the Home Insurance Crisis
New interactive maps reveal the widespread nature of the U.S. home insurance crisis with seven metrics of availability and affordability.
Consumer Federation of America: Overburdened
The Dramatic Increase in Homeowners Insurance Premiums and its Impacts on American Homeowners
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The Insurance Fairness Project is an information hub dedicated to offering insights into the home insurance crisis, exploring its drivers and highlighting solutions alongside issue experts and community advocates.
