Maine homeowners are facing the second-largest home insurance rate hike in the country, and climate change is to blame, according to an industry analysis.

While Maine is one of the most affordable states for home insurance, premiums are expected to increase 19% this year from an average of $1,322 a year to $1,571, according to the Massachusetts insurance analysis firm Insurify. More than a quarter of Maine ratepayers are expected to see their premiums go up.

Only Louisiana is expected to see a higher jump at 23%.

Nationally, the average rate is just under $2,400 and is expected to increase about 6% this year. And that’s after a nearly 20% jump between  2021 and 2023.

It could take 18 to 24 months to see the anticipated hikes, the report said, because most homeowner policies have a 12-month term.

The states most prone to severe weather events have the highest premiums, Insurify said. The firm analyzed insurance quotes from top carriers as well as how often and by how much insurance companies implemented rate increases through late 2023 into 2024.

States like Florida and Louisiana, which have a long history of dangerous and deadly hurricanes, have the two highest rates in the country, with annual premiums around $11,000 and $6,000, respectively.

While Maine’s home insurance costs have historically been lower than average, that will likely change.

The rise in insurance costs was cited in the state’s latest climate projections, released this week.

The report, The Scientific Assessment of Climate Change and Its Effects in Maine, said the state will see increased weather extremes. Dry periods will become drier and wet periods will get wetter. And winter storms will become more intense.

The 2023 expected payout for damage from catastrophe claims was nearly eight times that of an average year. The firm doesn’t see signs of improvement right away, especially given the storms in January and April.

The Maine Climate Council projects a 1.5-foot relative sea level rise by 2050, which can intensify the impact of coastal storms tenfold.

Verisk Analytics, a risk assessment firm, defines a catastrophe as an event causing more than $25 million in insured losses.

Regional insurers may see an average of four or five of these catastrophes in northern New England every year, Bob O’Brien, vice president of Portland insurance firm Noyes, Hall and Allen wrote in a post on the company’s website.

In 2023 there were eight.

“There aren’t just more catastrophes than normal. They’re bigger, too,” O’Brien said.

The 2023 expected payout for damage from catastrophe claims was nearly eight times that of an average year, he said.

As sea levels rise and storms intensify, flooding frequency also has increased dramatically in Maine and on the U.S. coastlines.

Damages from flooding events across the country totaled $7 billion in 2023, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

And those home insurance policies that people soon will be paying more for likely won’t be any help against flooding.

FLOOD COVERAGE EXTRA

Standard homeowners insurance doesn’t pay for flood damage, though many homeowners and renters mistakenly believe it does.

Most policies won’t cover water damage. Homeowners can buy an endorsement to their regular home insurance that covers backup of water from sump pumps and sewage, but not floodwater coming in from doors, windows or foundations. Some companies have an exclusion where if the power goes out and the sump pump doesn’t work, that’s still not covered.

For that they’d need flood insurance, which less than 1% of Mainers have, according to some estimates.

Nationally, the rate is about 4%, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Flood insurance rates also are predicted to rise.

On average, a flood insurance policy in Maine costs about $1,306 per year, according to FEMA data, and that’s on top of a traditional home insurance policy.

The average premium in Maine is expected to increase incrementally each year until it reaches an average of $2,700. Flood insurance rates cannot increase more than 18% per year.

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