Florida has built more than 75,000 new properties in high-risk flood areas since 2019, the most in the nation, The Wall Street Journal reports.
That’s according to an analysis by climate-modeling firm First Street Foundation for The Wall Street Journal. The building binge is putting the real-estate industry, and the banks that finance it, on a collision course with insurers.
With the new construction, insurance bills for recent hurricanes Milton and Helene are expected to be between $40 billion and $75 billion, according to ratings firm Morningstar DBRS.
Such large payouts driven from natural disasters have driven insurers over the past few years to raise rates and pull back on coverage in areas deemed high risk, including Louisiana.
Nationally, 290,000 new properties were built in high-risk flood areas from 2019 through 2023, almost one in five of the 1.6 million built in total in that period, the First Street analysis found.
Other states with heavy new construction in areas at high risk of flooding include Texas, with 63,000 properties since 2019, California with 21,000 properties, and North Carolina with 11,000, the First Street analysis found.
