Mapping an Uninsurable Country

Supported by Danielle Fujimoto, Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment 

Across the country, climate-driven disasters are pushing home insurers to raise premiums, deny claims, or leave high-risk markets. Homeowners are bearing the brunt of this growing uninsurability: The share of uninsured homes nearly doubled from 7.4 percent in 2019 to 13.6 percent in 2023.  

Luckily, states can fend off a looming home insurance crisis if they address the root causes of insurance instability. 

An insurability crisis doesn’t appear overnight. NRDC’s 2026 report on the issue, An Uninsurable Country, lists four precautionary signs that can develop over many years, including:  

• Rising damage from climate-influenced hazards and disasters 
• Rapidly increasing insurance rates and premiums 
• Growing numbers of homeowners without insurance, due to it being either unaffordable or unavailable 
• Rising enrollment in state-created insurers of last resort  

Using the signs from the report, NRDC has created a map—utilizing the best and most recently available data—that categorizes each state by how far along they are toward a full-blown insurability crisis. 

The purposes of the map and ratings table are not only to identify where stress is emerging but also to help states learn from one another, target reforms, and invest in strategies that keep insurance available and affordable over time. Comparisons between states can inform stakeholders on where issues exist, what areas are working well, and what needs reform.  

_{A note on the data: Unlike the mortgage industry—where the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requires covered financial institutions to collect, report, and publicly disclose comprehensive data about residential mortgage applications, originations, and purchases—the private insurance industry often keeps data proprietary. The data that is released is mostly aggregated at the state level or is years out of date. This leaves most homeowners unaware of how their state compares to others until they face challenges of rising premiums or dropped coverage. The publishing of this insurability map and ratings table allows for a more comprehensive comparison between states when there has been a historic data gap. The map and ratings table will be periodically updated as additional or more recent data becomes available.} 

MAP DATA TABLE

Turning risk signals into action 

Early signs are helpful only if states heed them. Rather than treating rising premiums, nonrenewals, and FAIR (Fair Access to Insurance Requirements) Plan growth as separate problems, policymakers should work to lower the underlying risk that is making homes harder to insure. This means aligning building codes, land use decisions, incentives for risk reduction activities (e.g., mitigation grants, premium discounts), as well as data transparency and consumer protections around a common goal: strengthening homes and communities before disasters strike. Some states are already leading in these areas. 

METHODOLOGY

Leadership from state governments is needed to stem these insurance risks before they grow, but lasting progress will require close coordination with industry, local governments, community leaders, and consumer advocates. Otherwise, damages will continue to mount, and insurance will continue to become more expensive and less available. States can turn these precautionary signs into action by working with stakeholders to reduce physical risk, improve market transparency, and protect consumers before communities and homeowners are left unprotected. 

Below are some existing tools and actions that can potentially shift the market:  

• Ensure that building codes reduce the potential for damage from common natural hazards. 
• Reduce underlying risk of damage by updating building codes that reflect both current and future climate risks. 
• Improve thoughtful decision-making around land use and zoning permits rather than allowing private insurers to implement price-influenced decisions.  
• Fund climate resilience efforts and incentivize retrofits of existing high-risk homes to standards that go beyond the minimum building code requirements. 
• Fund state-administered home retrofit grants, such as Florida’s My Safe Florida Home and Alabama’s Strengthen Alabama Homes initiatives. 
• Close the information gap to ensure the market remains fair and understandable for consumers.  
• This occurs through mandated public data disclosure around underwriting, pricing, claims, and nonrenewals at the census tract level. States should prohibit the use of unrelated rating factors, such as “black box” catastrophe models and credit scores. 
• Prepare state-created insurers of last resort for the future, making them an integral part of a state’s risk reduction efforts and not just the final resting place of the riskiest properties.  
• Reform state-created insurers of last resort so they actively support mitigation investments through resilience audits, premium discounts, and home retrofit grants for policyholders looking to reduce physical risk to their property. FAIR Plans should move toward accountable governance, which prioritizes risk reduction and consumer protection.  
• Insurers of last resort should invest directly in stronger storm-ready roofs through a suite of programs that provide financial support for policyholders to upgrade to Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety FORTIFIED roofs.  

The insurance crisis cannot be solved in isolation and will require partnership across a spectrum of stakeholders. However, when industry data, public policy, and consumer incentives are aligned, risk reduction can move from optional to standard practice. States can turn today’s insurance stress into a road map for safer, more resilient, and more affordable communities.