Nearly 75% of recent and prospective buyers believe that homeowners’ insurance could become unaffordable, according to a new Realtor.com survey.
Eighty-eight percent of those surveyed believe they will pay more for homeowners’ insurance in the future, and 42
% have already confirmed they have experienced a rise in home insurance costs.
Even more alarming is that half face or expect to face trouble obtaining and renewing insurance, with some (58%) in
dicating they could forgo homeowners’ insurance altogether.
This increases to 76% among Gen Z buyers, even though many of these young buyers are using a mortgage and are required to have homeowners’ insurance.
Of the 1000 surveyed, 65% are worried about obtaining and maintaining their homeowners’ insurance.
“Homeowners insurance offers financial protection for consumers that may help cover damage to homes
and personal property from an extreme weather event or fire, while also providing personal property and liability coverage,” said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danie
lle Hale. “But these benefits come with an upfront cost that has risen as weather events have become more freq
uent and impactful, and rebuilding costs climb. Homeowners are looking for strategies to lower costs, including adju
sting their home searches and potentially short-charging or forgoing coverage altogether.”
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According to the survey’s findings, insurance challenges have forced one-third (33.7%) of home searchers to com
pletely change the geographic area where they are looking for a ho
me, and another 30% have cast a wider net and expanded their initial target geography.
Nearly a quarter of home searchers have completely changed strategies due to insurance challenges.
Additionally, just 30% have looked into the natural disaster risk data for their home or prospective homes, though 44% plan to do so in the future.
Gen Z home searchers are more likely to have taken action in their search to potentially mitigate homeowners’ insurance challenges compared to other generation
s, especially Baby Boomers, who said that only 6% had completely changed their home buying strategy and only 15%
had expanded their initial search.