The property insurance crisis is becoming a prime mover for climate migration in the US. As premiums rise and insurers drop policies, it becomes difficult (if not impossible) to buy and sell homes in risk-prone areas, or to rebuild after disaster strikes. As the New York Times reports:
Without insurance, you can’t get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home. Communities that are deemed too dangerous to insure face the risk of falling property values, which means less tax revenue for schools, police and other basic services. As insurers pull back, they can destabilize the communities left behind, making their decisions a predictor of the disruption to come.
It should be clear that climate change is a major factor, and now we have the data to back it up. In 2025, a report from the National Bureau of Economic Research found a strong link between home insurance premiums and climate risk. Titled Property Insurance and Disaster Risk, authors Benjamin Keys & Philip Mulder found that premiums have risen over 30% on average since 2020, with at-risk regions seeing much larger increases.
In this post, we’ve mapped that data so you can see how and where the insurance crisis is affecting America; we’ll also be highlighting some key findings from the report, and looking at which areas of the country have been most affected.
Realistically your choice is build to resist it or build to be cheaply replaced.
I was listening to this podcast yesterday, and they made the point that for folks living in the most vulnerable/exposed areas, renting may be the move as you’re not on the hook for uninsurable losses. But obviously the risk is to more than just wealth, as I wouldn’t want to have to evacuate or face down a life-threatening disaster.


