Swamped by rising federal flood insurance rates
At least 41,000 homeowners in 49 Palm Beach County ZIP codes will pay more.
Just as federal flood insurance costs are poised to shoot skyward, Palm Beach County has lost its next-to-last-stand appeal to revise FEMA flooding maps driving the price surge.
The county has been fighting the map revisions since at least 2020, when it produced reams of scientific studies challenging the maps’ accuracy. The county argues the maps exaggerate the vulnerability of homes to flooding.
FEMA has denied the county’s appeal.
The revised maps are behind estimates of steep hikes in federal flood insurance premiums just released by the National Flood Insurance Program.
Who will pay more in Palm Beach County? At least 41,000 homeowners in 49 local ZIP codes are covered by the federal program. You can look up estimated increases by ZIP code, here.
How much more? The median increase for those ZIP codes is 12.6 percent — but some hikes are much, much higher.
In one Jupiter/Tequesta ZIP code, average premiums will rise by an estimated 342 percent, from $780 to $3,449.
Among Boca Raton ZIP codes, estimated hikes run from a modest 8.5 percent to a 229 percent hike that would boost premiums from $949 to $3,127.
It won’t happen all at once. Flood insurance is provided by the federal government, and the feds cap premium increases at 18 percent per year.
So, for instance, if the new flood insurance premium is 54 percent higher, a homeowner would pay 18 percent more per year for the next three years.
But wait: There’s worse. Millions of homeowners insured by Citizens Insurance will now be forced to buy the increasingly expensive flood insurance, too.
That’s because the Legislature’s new plan to bring rates down and keep insurers solvent requires that an owner of a single-family home covered by Citizens must obtain separate flood coverage. (Citizens does not sell it.)
Starting July 1, new or renewing Citizens’ policyholders in certain hazard zones will have to buy flood insurance. By 2027, all Citizens policyholders will.
Could a Hail Mary pass come to the rescue? Though FEMA has just said no, the agency is allowing the county to present its 2020 scientific evidence to a non-FEMA scientific panel.
Discounts could be available, too. Communities participating in a voluntary FEMA program reducing flood risk, the Community Rating System, may be eligible for lower rates.
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