By Robert Freedman, senior editor, REALTOR® Magazine
Flood insurance is commonly thought of as a coastal issue but flood plains are located throughout the country and in fact, in some Midwestern states, almost 10 percent of homes are in flood plain zones.
For that reason, it’s not just a coastal issue if the National Flood Insurance Program expires at the end of September, which is when the federal fiscal year ends.
NAR has been talking with lawmakers and their staffs about renewing the program (there’s a bill that would renew it for five years and make NAR-supported reforms), because if the federal government stops issuing the insurance, purchases of homes in flood plains can’t close.
Whats the potential universe of impacted properties? NAR estimates the number at more than 1,300 a day.
Most of those are in the South, but almost half are in the other three regions: Midwest, Northeast, and West.
Selma Hepp of NAR Research talks about how she derived the number and how that 1,300-a-day figure breaks out regionally in the 3-minute video above.
