Flooding Along Crum Creek During Hurricane Irene
It has taken nearly 6 months but the Senate on Thursday approved a bill that will limit rate increases for federal flood insurance to 18% per year. The passage of the bill essentially reverses the 2012 law that was aimed at overhauling the nearly bankrupt National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). Under the previous legislation some home owners in flood prone areas were facing flood insurance premium increase of up to 1,000%. The meteoric rate increase were seen as another stumbling block to the housing market in affected areas such as Florida.
The bill calls on FEMA to attempt to reach the goal that most policyholders have a premium of no more than 1% of the value of their coverage – for example $2,000 for a $200,000 policy. The legislation also restored the “grandfathering” of rates meaning homes that complied with previous flood maps would not be hit with large increases when new maps show greater risk of flooding
If grandfathering was terminated, property owners mapped into higher risk would have to either elevate their structure or have higher rates phased in over 5 years.
Wallingford PA Real Estate – Wallingford, PA 19086
