Path: news.eternal-september.org!eternal-september.org!.POSTED!not-for-mail
From: William Hyde <wthyde1953@gmail.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.sf.written
Subject: Re: Pearls Before Swine: Uncle At The Door
Date: Sat, 11 Jan 2025 17:33:57 -0500
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Dimensional Traveler wrote:
> On 1/11/2025 8:54 AM, Paul S Person wrote:
>> On Fri, 10 Jan 2025 14:48:19 -0800, Bobbie Sellers
>> <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> wrote:
>>

>>>     So Southern California should be abandoned by all but the
>>> entertainment industry and the retirees should move to Florida.:^(
>>
>> Florida is out -- retirees are fleeing because of the high condo fees,
>> or some such nonsense.
>>
>> Well, according to /some/ online sources, anyway.
> 
> High insurance costs for all the beachfront buildings that are starting 
> to subside because of rising sea levels and the resulting knock-on 
> effects from that like insurance companies refusing to add new policies 
> or renew existing ones because doing so would endanger their profits.

People in the reinsurance industry started paying attention to the 
problem of climate change a long time ago.  At about the turn of the 
century two big ones, Munich Re and Swiss Re, decided to stop offering 
coverage on the US gulf coast.  Others simply put up prices. As 
insurance companies rely on re-insurers to take some of the risk 
companies had to raise rates to preserve profits.

I'd be surprised if something similar hasn't happened in fire-prone 
areas.  Insurance companies are not in the business of saving people, 
they are in the business of spreading risk and making pots of money in 
the process.

Rising insurance narrows  the pool of potential buyers. Banks won't give 
mortgages for uninsured houses, so if you can't afford both the mortgage 
and insurance payments you can't buy. Prices will have to drop until 
houses start selling. If you are an older person trying to cash in on 
your house before moving to care or rental housing, you won't get the 
price you were expecting.  And if you are renting, higher insurance 
costs will be passed on to you.

For me the only consequence so far is a bump in flood insurance, large 
as a percentage but smallish as a dollar amount (I am on higher ground 
between two river branches).  Millions of others are not so lucky.

William Hyde