A real estate agent who appears on the Netflix reality series “Owning Manhattan” has warned that home insurance prices could rise as the number of natural disasters affecting the United States continues to rise.
Real estate agent Ryan Serhant told Fox Business that insurance companies have been hit hard by Hurricane Helen, which recently hit Florida and North Carolina, which will lead to higher premiums.
“I think this is one of the biggest insurance crises we’re going to have in a very long time,” Serhant said, adding that he’s among homeowners in the Carolinas and Florida who don’t actually buy flood insurance. He added that very few people do. “What’s even scarier to me is that only 2 to 4 percent of homeowners actually have flood insurance. That’s about $34 billion in negative impact.”
Ryan Serhant spoke to Fox Business about the looming crisis. Charles Sykes/Bravo via Getty Images
Hurricane Helen has killed more than 200 people so far.
Insurify, an online insurance marketplace, said it expects home insurance premiums could rise 7% this year for Florida residents alone.
The average home insurance rate in Florida is $11,759, the highest in the nation. In 2023, Florida homeowners paid an average of $10,996 in insurance premiums.
The average homeowners insurance premium in Louisiana is more than $6,300 per year, three times the national average. The Bayou State has the second-highest home insurance premiums in the nation after Florida, but Insurify predicts costs will rise an additional 23% in 2024, to about $7,800 on average.
Just outside the Batcave, North Carolina, homes and roads were destroyed by Helen. Ben Hendren Aerial view of a tree growing on the roof of a house in Georgia after Hurricane Helen Getty Images
Since 2019, more than a dozen home insurance companies have filed for bankruptcy, and Farmers Insurance no longer provides insurance to Florida homeowners.
“It’s a travesty,” Serhant said, adding that the U.S. real estate market is in limbo even though the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates.
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“Inventories are rising and interest rates are at 20-month lows, but buyers remain on the sidelines,” Serhant said. “People are waiting. They want to know if the deal is going to go through.”
He said insurance is obtained “through the National Flood Insurance Program” and is “an additional $1,000 per year on top of all other costs.”
