Flood Insurance on waterfront propery (Tampa, Apollo Beach: home owners insurance, mortgages, how much)

[boomer613]

We are considering moving on a canal home in the Apollo Beach area. I hear that flood insurance has skyrocketed in the past 2 years and will continue to rise. Is this true? What about home owners insurance? If flood insurance is becoming unaffordable; will it bring down the market prices of waterfront homes? If so, would it be wiser to buy now or wait till it falls again. Right now, I do not see prices dropping, in fact they seemed to be increasing or holding their value. Is this correct?

[LKJ1988]

Originally Posted by boomer613

We are considering moving on a canal home in the Apollo Beach area. I hear that flood insurance has skyrocketed in the past 2 years and will continue to rise. Is this true? What about home owners insurance? If flood insurance is becoming unaffordable; will it bring down the market prices of waterfront homes? If so, would it be wiser to buy now or wait till it falls again. Right now, I do not see prices dropping, in fact they seemed to be increasing or holding their value. Is this correct?

Pay cash and go bare or deal with paying more and more every year. The cost is going to be insane. Just move away from any areas that flood and save 1000's.

[mortpes]

Water front property or at risk property is correctly only for those that can self insure as it is no longer politically correct to shift the risk to others.

[boomer613]

I know it does make since to buy waterfront property as the risk are great and the insurance has skyrocketed. I used to live in the Tampa area before I joined the military. My family and I would love to move back and I am hoping sometime next year I will have the opportunity to by a home on the saltwater canal. It is just a little too high for us to afford one but if they drop another 25% I think we could pull it off. I guess my real question is - is flood insurance causing people to sell their canal homes and will this translate to more affordable property?

[hotkarl]

Flood insurance is a killer. I live nowhere near water but had to have flood because I was zoned for it. Then came Sandy and we actually did flood(had 2 feet of water in my house).
Of course Sandy flooded out areas that never, ever, saw water(like my neighborhood).
I am definitely looking to not be anywhere near a flood zone or flood insurance when we move. Screw that. Every year my policy went up, even before Sandy. Now it's basically unaffordable and crippling me financially.

[Pragmaticus]

There is no one size fit all answer to flood insurance. It varies a lot from one location to the other. What one person pay (I do pay for flood insurance and I am nowhere near canal or such), won't help you because of the many factors that affect it. For a specific location, you can ask an insurance agent for a quote and you will have an idea. If you are barely affording the place that you plan to buy, not a good idea to be in such an area specially in Zone V. That's asking for trouble. If you can't afford the insurance, you have no business living close to water that requires high premium.

Don't rely on what people say over here-lots of misinformation thrown out here. Go to FEMA site, go to the county website and check the place that you are interested in how much would be the premium.

Best of luck!

[boomer613]

hotkarl, if you do not mind me asking, how much damage did the flood from Sandy cause? I hear that most flood victims average about 32K in water damage. From a hurricane standpoint, most damage is caused by the wind, which is covered under your homeowner's insurance.

FEMA is just trying to recoup their loss as they are 24 billion dollars in the red from Sandy and Katrina - they need to build up their slush fund. I might just opt out of flood insurance and take the risk. I have read that many homeowners are just choosing to go without flood insurance. This might be an acceptable case for me as I think I could risk 32K. I know I could sheetrock my entire house for under 10K.

[sarahsmith121]

yes,flood is very harmful for people.it is wiser to buy and fall down it again.

[spbbound]

For the OP:

Flood insurance will only be going up significantly for those who are living in homes that are built below the designated FEMA base flood elevation and either have mortgages (forced to carry it) or whom choose to carry it. Originally the rates were simply going to be adjusted from what was being paid to what should be paid, but that was later amended to no greater than a 25% rate increase per year until reaching the appropriate rate.

Now, for what determines the rate. Most homes on the water are going to be in an A zone or V zone. V tends to be mostly just beach front while A is most places that would be affected by a storm surge but not necessarily a direct hit. The difference between the two is V zone requires knock down walls at ground level and the elevation is measured from zero to the lowest piece of infrastructure, so plumbing, electrical, etc. "A" zone doesn't require knock down walls, and elevation is measured from zero to the height of the floor surface of the first livable floor; i.e. plumbing can still be below that floor but it doesn't count.

You can find the zone that your prospective property is in via the FEMA website by doing an address search. It will let you see the map for the area to also show you where the zones begin and end. It will also show the elevation number.

Homes that are built to the required spec are a non-issue. I'm in an A zone with 12 foot elevation and my flood insurance is about $400/year because my home is built to the proper height (actually two feet above because I didn't want to take the chance that FEMA raises the base flood elevation, which they can do!!). Of course, the home I tore down to build was not built to the required height and that flood bill would have been $9k/year.

The whole thing is a big racket. 60% of Floridian's flood payments end up supporting out of state people who build along flood prone rivers, or of course, the idiots who are living below sea level in New Orleans where all they need is a pump failure or levee breach to be under water. I wish flood insurance was state-based since they're all big on paying your appropriate rates now. That would help Floridians who are stuck below flood elevation, at least a little bit, and penalize the people who build where they shouldn't.

[chaseo1]

Originally Posted by LKJ1988

Pay cash and go bare

Please OP whatever you do, DO NOT do this.

Especially in those manmade canals, a slow moving TS can make those canals swell then you will be SOL.