Boston area could face more expensive home insurance costs in coming years
BOSTON - Many homeowners are already facing an insurance crisis in states like Florida and California. But it will likely affect people in the Boston area in the years ahead.
According to the First Street Foundation, a non-profit that studies climate risks, it's becoming more expensive to insure property because of natural disasters made worse by climate change.
CBS News analyzed their data and found the counties in the Boston area that are most at risk from high winds.
In Plymouth County, 73-percent of the properties are at risk of higher insurance premiums or losing their coverage.
In Essex County it's 41-percent and in Norfolk County, 20-percent of the properties could have trouble finding affordable insurance.
And looking to the future, 30 years from now, Rockingham County in southern New Hampshire could have the sharpest spike in the number of homes at risk - a projected increase of 179-percent.
"We're at a unique point where climate change is intersecting with economic conditions, including inflation, cost of reinsurance, cost of construction. All of those things taken together are actually costing insurance companies a lot more in regards to the claims they're paying out, which means that they either have to raise their premiums to bring more money in, or they have to stop offering coverage," Jeremy Porter of the First Street Foundation told CBS News.
The average cost for homeowners' insurance in Massachusetts has gone up 15-percent in one year, according to data from policy genius, an online insurance broker.