Questions Regarding Flood Insurance (Tampa: 2015, condo, mortgage)

[DE2009]

I am getting ready to move to Tampa and am looking at buying a house. I am having a difficult time trying to figure out how much flood insurance is for various houses that list that a house is in a flood zone. I found this article which seems as if the cost didn't raise as high as it was going to: Senate agrees to undo sharp flood insurance increase (w/video) | Tampa Bay Times
I don't know what to look for, etc. to determine what the cost of flood insurance will be for houses I am looking at, such as in apollo beach, etc. I have read that houses that were not in flood zones were later determined to be in one. Can anyone offer any advice for me as a future Tampa area home buyer? Thank you!

[ilikepizza]

You can call any flood insurance agent and give them the address and they will give you the price. The price will be the same no matter which company you go through.

[SandyJet]

April 1, 2015 flood rates are rising across the board and new rate table will be finalized by March 1.

[spbbound]

Use Google Earth and find the estimated elevation for the home in question; they're generally accurate to within a foot. A and V zone homes are the ones that are getting hit hard, and the reprieve is just to decrease how much the rate can go up by each year, everyone living below base flood elevation (BFE) in those zones is going to feel the pain either way. Unless you're very near the water or near a canal/retention pond/lake though, most homes will be well above the required BFE even if they're just slab on grade construction. My current home is near a retention pond but is several miles from the coast; it's at an elevation of 38 feet and the pond is 30. My flood insurance, which was optional from my mortgage company's perspective, is $328/year.

[SandyJet]

Originally Posted by spbbound

Use Google Earth and find the estimated elevation for the home in question; they're generally accurate to within a foot. A and V zone homes are the ones that are getting hit hard, and the reprieve is just to decrease how much the rate can go up by each year, everyone living below base flood elevation (BFE) in those zones is going to feel the pain either way. Unless you're very near the water or near a canal/retention pond/lake though, most homes will be well above the required BFE even if they're just slab on grade construction. My current home is near a retention pond but is several miles from the coast; it's at an elevation of 38 feet and the pond is 30. My flood insurance, which was optional from my mortgage company's perspective, is $328/year.

But stuff like PRP EE, Pre-Firm, Grandfathering, Condo vs House, Primary vs Second home, damaged or improved greater than 50% etc are all wild cards and can signifcantly change rates of two identical house with same BFE. So finding BFE is only first step in process of researching a home in a flood zone

[Restrain]

Exact data can be obtained from FEMAs website. It does a search by address and you can open the flood map.

[MortonR]

If the property is in Hillsborough County, you can go here and enter the address to find out if it is in a flood zone.

You cannot rely on third party resources such as Google Maps. FEMA is the determining factor when it comes to establishing if the property is in a flood zone, and they're also the one who your insurer goes to as well.

Being in a flood zone isn't the end of the world, nor should it disqualify a property necessarily. My property is bisected by the "X" and "AE" zones, and I'm not required by my lender to carry flood insurance. I do, mainly because it's cheap relative to what I might lose if there was a major flood that ultimately ended up on my property.

The easiest way to find out if you're looking at a property is to ask the realtor if the current owner's lender requires flood insurance. If they do, you're in a flood zone....

RM