Not just homes. Cars. Animals.
Yesterday a massive hail storm wrecked cars across Springfield, MO.
This morning, a Wall Street Journal report on soaring home insurance costs across the midwestern heartland.
It’s not just hurricanes in Florida we have to worry about. Extreme storms with hail and damaging winds are changing the economics of home ownership across the heartland.
Welcome to the rest of our lives.
The old home-insurance rules are being upended. For decades, coastal states with hurricanes bore the brunt of rate increases, while inland states enjoyed cheap coverage. Now, hailstorms, wildfires and wind damage are hammering places once thought to be shielded from the worst rate hikes, a Wall Street Journal analysis of premiums and natural disasters nationwide found.
Hail-prone Iowa has seen approved home-insurance rates increase 91% since 2021: In Florida, despite the hurricane risk, the increase is 35%, S&P Global Market Intelligence data through March show.
Home-insurance premiums can vary dramatically, depending on where you live: Crossing a county line can more than double the cost.
Hurricanes still drive high premiums: 46 of the 50 costliest counties nationwide, mostly strung along the Gulf Coast, count hurricanes as their primary threat, according to the Journal’s analysis of data from price-comparison firm Insurify. The data estimates insurers’ state-approved rates, rather than actual premiums paid, which might skew prices up in high-risk areas.
The next 50 most-expensive counties include areas of Oklahoma and Texas where hail, wildfires or tornadoes pose the biggest threat from nature.
Home-insurance rates nationally have far outpaced consumer prices since the pandemic. And it isn’t all weather-related. Rising home values and higher construction and labor costs are also driving up premiums.
Homeowners in some high-risk areas are seeing rates spiral, if they can get coverage at all. George Braue of Orinda, Calif., said he was stunned by his home-insurance renewal notice last year. The annual premium had shot up to $16,496, more than nine times his premium of less than two years ago. The reason? Wildfires, which are scorching homeowners’ chances of cheaper insurance in many states.
Damage from hail is also on the rise. Verisk, a catastrophe-modeling firm, estimates potential insured losses from severe thunderstorms of around $60 billion a year—almost double its modeled losses from just four years ago. “The biggest change was looking at hail frequency and impact,” said Verisk’s Rob Newbold.
Above, massive hail storm in Springfield, Missouri yesterday.
“I saw the hail get really big, from the pea-sized hail we had at first. Then I went back inside and walked to the back of the building because I didn’t want to be near the windows if they broke,” he said.
Those turn of events caused mass destruction at the Springfield-Branson National Airport.
“Two to three inch-sized hail impacted all of the airport property, all 3300 acres,” said airport spokesperson Ren Bishop Lubbering.
She says dozens of cars, from rentals to those belonging to travelers, were hit.
“If you have a car that was parked here at the airport, it was likely impacted and received hail damage today. You should follow up with your car insurance if you need to determine next steps,” she said.
In the background of the Ozark reporter there are damaged cars parked on the driveways instead of in the double garages. I think people will switch back from using their garages as junk storage and workshops to actually parking their cars. Who’d a thunk it!
Others will add fixed carports (which are also great for poor-weather cookouts).
About 25 years ago I got dropped off at the sunny airport in Minneapolis to fly home to Chicago from a business trip. I sat in the terminal and dialed my wife to tell her I was on-time to get home, and literally while I was dialing, I saw the tiny black edge of a cloud appear in the window in front of me. When she picked up, I told her I was going to be late.
We took off four hours later, after they let the ground crews back out to inspect the planes for hail damage. The coworker who dropped me at the airport had $1600 damage to his car from the hail (and that was back then $$$).
During the flight, the pilot mentioned the thunderhead that hit had topped out at over 65,000 feet.
Along with the property damage detailed in your post, the farmers and the crop insurers take a beating too. Add in the increase in frequency of derechos, which can flatten mid-to-late season fields, and agriculture is getting more costly too.