Doing my annual homeowners renewal and am making the switch back to liere and they asked me for my flood policy for a rollover and I couldn't find it for a bit and that is when Bryan informed me that if we weren't able to roll it, a new flood policy for a home in Zone X would be $2700!!!

There are going to be a LOT of people that wish they had been doling out that $450. That is a brutal annual hit.

Yes I know it also went up last year to something like $550 for the coverage as well

You must be an outlier. Per Reuters: "FEMA estimates two in three existing policy holders will see an average premium increase of up to $10 a month and about a quarter will see immediate decreases.

Premium changes would continue until the new "risk rate" is fully realized. FEMA estimates that about 50% of policies will hit that mark after five years and about 90% will reach it at 10 years."

$550 to $2700 is way more than $10 a month.

As I said, it was if you didn't have a previous policy. I believe mine has gone up about $4/month this year, but if I had declined to get this coverage last year, it would have been $2700 this year.

Yes, that's on new policies.
They were $572.
My secretary checked her home as if she were writing a new policy and it was $$1,600.
There are private flood markets

Here's some more info about the changes:

https://www.fema.gov/flood-insurance/risk-rating

Houston, Austin, and San Antonio will get hit hard with the "increased rainfall" metric. Those cities have the highest density of rainfall gauges, measure the most data, and had huge relative jumps in annual rainfall the last time the data was updated a few years ago. NOAA won't admit that they punished cities for building robust flood warning systems, but they used all that data to change 12" of rain to 16" of rain that was influenced by recent storms while lessening the more historical and better distributed rainfall data.


Houston and the Gulf Coast will get hit hard because they're flat. FEMA rates now take into account elevation above the floodplain. With Houston being very flat, most houses are within a foot or two of the 100-year flooding elevation. If you are closer in elevation to the floodplain, you pay more. This neglects the fact that flat areas also store more water than hilly areas. So a house could be 1' above 100-year in Houston, but require going from 12" of rain to 24" of rain to fill the entire floodplain 1-foot higher. A house in Austin on a creek slope can be 1' higher than the floodplain and require going from 12" to 13" of rain to flood. Both would be treated the same in terms of elevation.

Houston will get hit hard by the "equity" part of the revision. People in Houston actually care about flooding. They will ask if a house has flooded before and they will pay less if it does. People in other cities don't usually ask or care that much. FEMA rightfully says that low-value houses flood more than high-value houses and end up paying more after a flood event (because cheaper houses flood, so people pay less for them, so the houses that flood are cheaper...you get the idea). Unfortunately, making smart decisions like buying a house with a lower risk of flooding gets punished by the Feds. So people with higher home values will subsidize low-value property flood insurance.

SE Houston and coastal areas get hit hard because of coastal issues. It's a concept called "combined probability." Not gonna explain it here because I've already written too much. Google it if you want to learn more.

Let me guess, OP, you live in a house in Houston, close to the 100-year floodplain but not in it, and your appraisal is at least $300k, right? Might also live in Galveston County or SE Harris County.

A lot of people need to seriously consider dropping their flood insurance with the increases that are coming. Make your own decisions, but I'd drop it if I have a townhome with a kitchen on the 2nd floor, a first-floor kitchen I wouldn't mind remodeling, 1st floor bathroom I wouldn't mine remodeling, or only half-baths on the first floor.

With the rollover, mine only went up about $40. I would not have renewed at the wildly increased rate. My home is 30ish years old and has never flooded.

I'm honestly surprised there wasn't more discussion about the rates and how new policies are no longer affordable. I thought it was very interesting. Maybe a tine board topic since everyone there needs it.

Moving to Houston and first time purchasing flood insurance

Zone X Unshaded

I thought all of the values between companies were supposed to be about the same due to it being through the government. Is that correct or no?

I now have quotes for $1110, $910, and $667 all for the same property and similar coverage/deductible levels.

Any thoughts on this?

Not all flood policies are gov't backed (i.e., NFIP). Some are privately backed. I suspect some of your quotes are for private insurance, given the difference in those quotes. Otherwise, the premiums should have been the same.

Just got our renewal and it went up $100 to $682. Ouch. Also zone x and 20 year old home that has never flooded or even come close. Ours is through the NFIP but considering we've had coverage for 15 years this is getting ridiculous.

Yea, for the first time ever I dont have flood insurance on one of my homes. Way way way too expensive.

I would drop it this year but we have a new development going in behind us that really changed the drainage that we fought the city over and over with bc of their engineers planned drainage. And we are downstream along the drainage channel from them that dumps into the river. So I'm going to suck it up and pay for it until we get some rain and I can see what it does. Then I will prob drop it bc I work for a builder in case something did happen.

Bumping this....I opted not to renew my flood insurance because it went from like $450 to $800. I just worked with Casey's team at goosehead and am getting a private policy at $515