• This is a political forum that is non-biased/non-partisan and treats every person's position on topics equally. This debate forum is not aligned to any political party. In today's politics, many ideas are split between and even within all the political parties. Often we find ourselves agreeing on one platform but some topics break our mold. We are here to discuss them in a civil political debate. If this is your first visit to our political forums, be sure to check out the RULES. Registering for debate politics is necessary before posting. Register today to participate - it's free!

Why do so many homeowners in Houston not have flood insurance?

ALiberalModerate

Pragmatist
DP Veteran
Joined
Jun 23, 2005
Messages
32,399
Reaction score
22,623
Gender
Male
Political Leaning
Moderate
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.
 
Nobody expected a 500-year flood this year? They'd alread had two of those this century.
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

They likely all have the minimum coverage they're legally allowed to have.

That, or flood insurance isn't included in the "full coverage" package.


I mean, you could also ask why all living people in the US don't have life insurance, being as death is certain...
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

Flood insurance is based on flood maps. My sister lives in Houston and they bought based on a flood map so their insurance was low $450 a year. The housing track across the road the insurance was over $4000.00 yearly. Flood insurance is affordable when don't live in a flood prone area.
 
Flood insurance is based on flood maps. My sister lives in Houston and they bought based on a flood map so their insurance was low $450 a year. The housing track across the road the insurance was over $4000.00 yearly. Flood insurance is affordable when don't live in a flood prone area.

As you would expect.

Just imagine the financial hit if the flood maps get changed to reflect actual probability of flooding (based on recent historical flooding)
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

Because you can literally sit a homeowner down, explain the risks of not having, show them how they can afford it, show them in their own finances how it makes sense. And all they will see is another pointless monthly bill for something they can't see or feel. I've literally sat down with a man, tried to sell him life insurance, him tell me he didn't need no damn insurance, and then have him die 5 days later. Would have ruined his wife and family financially, his wife who was a jerk to me the entire time I was making my pitch. She was super sweet to me after I took her backdated check, and filled out a backdated application, and saved her house while giving her enough to live on for a year. I've had so many people kick me out of their house because I told them their work insurance was 10x as expensive as a private alternative and that there company chose a plan that wouldn't meet the minimum requirements of Obamacare. Only to have them call me back a month later, saying they got a letter from their insurance telling them they would need a supplemental plan to meet the minimum requirements. Most of the time they had their wife call. And then after I switched them, they would call again, amazed at how much different it was. Everyone thinks their work insurance is better than a private plan, depending on your health and age, that's just not true. Many smaller and midsize employers go for the cheapest, ****tiest, plans. And the largest employers, just hire enough people to keep everyone off full time.

The point is, no one listens to their Financial Adviser about insurance. Even though 6 of our licenses are insurance based, and we can't legally lie, or misrepresent information in any way. Not until they've needed that insurance at some point. It's one of the reasons I hate old white people. They will literally cut off their own nose for the most stupid petty reasons. But, if you pull their ass out of the fire, they won't shut about you, so that brings in new business. But it's still annoying not rubbing it in their faces with a big fat I told you so.

The woman who I backdated the application for, she had about 20 friends call me after that, and take out life insurance policies on their husbands without their husband knowing. About half of them have died, men do not live long, not long at all. Let me put it this way guys, if you make it past 70, you literally have your pick of women and statistically a good shot at 90. But only a few of us will make it to the promised land...

Reading over this, it seems like I'm a terrible person, profiting off the misfortune of others. But really, my job is to convince people to shift their financial risk in case of misfortune. And it pisses me off when they don't listen. Because it's depressing when someone doesn't take the advice, and then later on needs it. I still have to work with the family to help prepare the estate, or rearrange their money to pay for expensive treatments. I can tell you it's a lot less depressing after I've handed them a big check, or cut their deductibles and out of pockets.
 
Because you can literally sit a homeowner down, explain the risks of not having, show them how they can afford it, show them in their own finances how it makes sense. And all they will see is another pointless monthly bill for something they can't see or feel. I've literally sat down with a man, tried to sell him life insurance, him tell me he didn't need no damn insurance, and then have him die 5 days later. Would have ruined his wife and family financially, his wife who was a jerk to me the entire time I was making my pitch. She was super sweet to me after I took her backdated check, and filled out a backdated application, and saved her house while giving her enough to live on for a year. I've had so many people kick me out of their house because I told them their work insurance was 10x as expensive as a private alternative and that there company chose a plan that wouldn't meet the minimum requirements of Obamacare. Only to have them call me back a month later, saying they got a letter from their insurance telling them they would need a supplemental plan to meet the minimum requirements. Most of the time they had their wife call. And then after I switched them, they would call again, amazed at how much different it was. Everyone thinks their work insurance is better than a private plan, depending on your health and age, that's just not true. Many smaller and midsize employers go for the cheapest, ****tiest, plans. And the largest employers, just hire enough people to keep everyone off full time.

The point is, no one listens to their Financial Adviser about insurance. Even though 6 of our licenses are insurance based, and we can't legally lie, or misrepresent information in any way. Not until they've needed that insurance at some point. It's one of the reasons I hate old white people. They will literally cut off their own nose for the most stupid petty reasons. But, if you pull their ass out of the fire, they won't shut about you, so that brings in new business. But it's still annoying not rubbing it in their faces with a big fat I told you so.

The woman who I backdated the application for, she had about 20 friends call me after that, and take out life insurance policies on their husbands without their husband knowing. About half of them have died, men do not live long, not long at all. Let me put it this way guys, if you make it past 70, you literally have your pick of women and statistically a good shot at 90. But only a few of us will make it to the promised land...

Reading over this, it seems like I'm a terrible person, profiting off the misfortune of others. But really, my job is to convince people to shift their financial risk in case of misfortune. And it pisses me off when they don't listen. Because it's depressing when someone doesn't take the advice, and then later on needs it. I still have to work with the family to help prepare the estate, or rearrange their money to pay for expensive treatments. I can tell you it's a lot less depressing after I've handed them a big check, or cut their deductibles and out of pockets.

As I expect taking a back dated check and application for life insurance after the person has died, could get you in serious trouble, you are far from a terrible person. Helping a person when it could have potentially got you charged with fraud and at the very least lose your job
 
As I expect taking a back dated check and application for life insurance after the person has died, could get you in serious trouble, you are far from a terrible person. Helping a person when it could have potentially got you charged with fraud and at the very least lose your job

I wasn't to worried, insurance companies aren't heartless cruel places, it's an unwritten rule you got a period of about two weeks to backdate checks and applications before compliance takes notice. And most states Dept of Insurance don't look to closely at these situations, they got more heinous crimes to investigate. If you're working with a dedicated agent married to a specific group of companies, and not a broker that is basically just a personal shopper. You can usually get a lot of slack cut your way.
 
As you would expect.

Just imagine the financial hit if the flood maps get changed to reflect actual probability of flooding (based on recent historical flooding)

Most do actually.
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

It is not irresponsible. Self insuring is a thing that a lot of people do. We do it. I have a savings account that is specifically for home maintenance, including uninsured damage. The difference is, my account makes money instead of losing it and I don't have to ask for my money. I just withdraw it. To be totally honest, I have to ask my broker to sell the shares of mutual funds it is in and that takes a couple days. But, I have put $1,000 per year into this fund and I can pay for the restoration should my house be hit by a flood. We had a 100 years flood just a couple of years ago, so I'm not at all worried. If I had bought insurance and never used it, I'd be out all of that money. To me, it is irresponsible to buy insurance when you can self insure.

As for Houston, very very little land is considered to be in the 500 year flood plane. http://www.harriscountyfemt.org/

I looked for a satellite image of the entire county to see if I could tell what has and hasn't flooded, but I can't find one. I suspect this is much worse than the 500 year estimates.
 
As you would expect.

Just imagine the financial hit if the flood maps get changed to reflect actual probability of flooding (based on recent historical flooding)
i expect the floodway zone and floodway fringe zones to be revised, placing more properties in a flood hazard area
and many will require federal financing for their uninsured losses, which loans will require flood insurance - unless the applicant seeks and qualifies for disaster mitigation funds to place the property improvements above the flood zone
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

In Illinois, lenders require their borrowers to obtain flood insurance if their home is in a designated flood plain. Should be like that everywhere, imo.
 
In Illinois, lenders require their borrowers to obtain flood insurance if their home is in a designated flood plain. Should be like that everywhere, imo.

It is like that everywhere as far as I know. The problem is that flood plain maps are way out of date in Houston and you can look at the place and tell that virtually the entire metro is subject to flooding even if its not in a designated flood plain.
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

Because we keep handing out so much free money after the damage, paying for insurance is seen as the Chumps Choice.

We do this to ourselves, and the mistakes start at the very top of the power structure, because the Elite Class Sucks.
 
It is not irresponsible. Self insuring is a thing that a lot of people do. We do it. I have a savings account that is specifically for home maintenance, including uninsured damage. The difference is, my account makes money instead of losing it and I don't have to ask for my money. I just withdraw it. To be totally honest, I have to ask my broker to sell the shares of mutual funds it is in and that takes a couple days. But, I have put $1,000 per year into this fund and I can pay for the restoration should my house be hit by a flood. We had a 100 years flood just a couple of years ago, so I'm not at all worried. If I had bought insurance and never used it, I'd be out all of that money. To me, it is irresponsible to buy insurance when you can self insure.

As for Houston, very very little land is considered to be in the 500 year flood plane. Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool

I looked for a satellite image of the entire county to see if I could tell what has and hasn't flooded, but I can't find one. I suspect this is much worse than the 500 year estimates.

Wait a second though. If your flood insurance premium is an average of 482 dollars a year, then in 10 years it has cost you less than 5,000. You can't self insure against something as expensive as flood damage for that kind of money. I am all for having money set aside for home maintenance issues as you never know when you will need a furnace replaced, appliances replaced and so on. We do that. However, for really expensive things, we also tend to buy insurance, particularly if the insurance is not that expensive. For example, our home still has its original sewer line from 1941. We carry a sewer line policy because of that. It only costs us a few dollars a month, pays for having the line rooted out, and pays for its replacement if needed. A replacement for a sewer line can be anywhere from 5k to over 20k, so it makes financial sense for.

I am sure you have been to Houston, tell me where in that metro it doesn't look like it could flood?
 
Because we keep handing out so much free money after the damage, paying for insurance is seen as the Chumps Choice.
what happens to that afflicted community if the residents are without the means to repair their homes
and the money is not free. it comes with a 4% interest rate

We do this to ourselves, and the mistakes start at the very top of the power structure, because the Elite Class Sucks.
it is sound public policy
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

May be wrong here, but that would only apply to flooding from the gulf/storm surges, not the rain that fell.
 
May be wrong here, but that would only apply to flooding from the gulf/storm surges, not the rain that fell.

Flood insurance covers you from flooding due to storm surges, flash floods, basement flooding, and flooding due to flooding waterways. The only time homeowners will cover your home due to water damage would be if a storm damaged your roof which then resulted in water damage to your home.
 
Flood insurance covers you from flooding due to storm surges, flash floods, basement flooding, and flooding due to flooding waterways. The only time homeowners will cover your home due to water damage would be if a storm damaged your roof which then resulted in water damage to your home.
Thank you
 
As I expect taking a back dated check and application for life insurance after the person has died, could get you in serious trouble, you are far from a terrible person. Helping a person when it could have potentially got you charged with fraud and at the very least lose your job

Also made a commission while committing fraud.
 
My wife is from Houston and almost all of her family is still down there. If you have ever been to Houston then you know that entire metro is at or near sea level (I think its about 50 feet above sea level on the North side of Houston). The area is covered in creeks, bayous, and canals. There are no hills until you get damn near to Huntsville. So even if you don't live in an official floodplain, you would be hard pressed to look at any of it and not think it couldn't potentially flood.

Only about 2 in 10 of those flooded have flood insurance. I looked up the average cost of flood insurance for Texas, it is $482 dollars or about 40 dollars a month. https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-flood-insurance#nogo

So in the scheme of things, as a homeowner, its not that expensive. So why do so few home owners down there have it? I can see why folks in 3rd or 5th wards don't have it, those are impoverished areas where another $500 dollars a year might not be doable, but for all these folks in $250k homes and up, it just seems pretty irresponsible.

Some people just do not care until it hits them, Heck I have seen people who drive top end corvette and mercedes who refuse insurance, why I do not know, I guess some people take their gambling habit to every aspect of their life.

As far as houston, yes it is flood prone, has been as long as I have been in texas. Granted floods like the one now are far from the norm, but usually any tropical storm season they get quite a bit of rain and flooding, and it seems like every other year they are calling in tow truck drivers from all over the state to pull out flooded vehicles.
 
It is not irresponsible. Self insuring is a thing that a lot of people do. We do it. I have a savings account that is specifically for home maintenance, including uninsured damage. The difference is, my account makes money instead of losing it and I don't have to ask for my money. I just withdraw it. To be totally honest, I have to ask my broker to sell the shares of mutual funds it is in and that takes a couple days. But, I have put $1,000 per year into this fund and I can pay for the restoration should my house be hit by a flood. We had a 100 years flood just a couple of years ago, so I'm not at all worried. If I had bought insurance and never used it, I'd be out all of that money. To me, it is irresponsible to buy insurance when you can self insure.

As for Houston, very very little land is considered to be in the 500 year flood plane. Harris County Flood Education Mapping Tool

I looked for a satellite image of the entire county to see if I could tell what has and hasn't flooded, but I can't find one. I suspect this is much worse than the 500 year estimates.
I'm with you here, if you can make the numbers work.

But in my area a $500 deductible on a $350K property runs around $750/yr.

It would take an awful lot of years, even if invested well, to provide adequate catastrophic self-insurance in this case. Each case has to be taken individually on it's own merit. If it works for you, good. I'm envious. But it may not work for everybody.

I also am 100% with you on a house maintenance savings fund. Everyone should have one.
 
They likely all have the minimum coverage they're legally allowed to have.

That, or flood insurance isn't included in the "full coverage" package.


I mean, you could also ask why all living people in the US don't have life insurance, being as death is certain...

In most cases, the legally required coverage, like all insurance, is zero.

Flood insurance is never included in the typical homeowners package.

There is one source of flood insurance, That's FEMA.

Lenders may require flood insurance if the property is located in a FEMA 100 year flood plain, and generally do. Otherwise, you are on your own, it's your decision. The consequences of the decision are also the obligation of the homeowner.

Not wishing to get in an argument. Those are the facts.

Another slightly off topic fact. Property insurance, if purchased as a condition of a loan, does not always insure the homeowner's position. The lender is interested only in covering their position. It's up to you to cover yourself. That applies to both property insurance and flood insurance.
 
Back
Top Bottom