Home insurance is getting more expensive in the United States, and the growing national property insurance crisis is hitting all Americans, especially Black homeowners.
A report from Climate Power found that climate change and extreme weather are driving insurers to raise rates, limit coverage, or abandon markets, especially in the Southeast, where Black home ownership rates are highest.
The current rise in home insurance rates places a heavy cost burden on a significant portion of Black households compared to other communities. According to data from Zillow, 19% of Black households nationwide are cost-burdened, compared to 12% of white households, 17% of Hispanic households, and 18% of Asian households.
In North Carolina, cities with predominantly Black households paid some of the highest insurance premiums and had the highest uninsured rates.
According to a report from Climate Power, predominantly Black cities of Fayetteville and Rocky Mount paid some of the highest home insurance premiums, with the average annual cost of home insurance in Fayetteville being $2,985. This is more than 25% higher than the average cost among North Carolina’s 25 largest municipalities, according to the report.
In Rocky Mount, where Black North Carolinians make up over 60% of the city’s population, the average annual cost of home insurance was $2,539 — about 7% higher than the average cost among North Carolina’s 25 largest municipalities.
Zip Code Impact
On top of the rise in insurance rates, decades of redlining and underinvestment have pushed Black families into flood-prone areas and neighborhoods with fewer infrastructure investments. According to a blog from the NAACP, predominantly Black neighborhoods are twice as likely to flood as predominantly white ones.
And without insurance, families bear the full financial weight when disaster hits, particuarly Black coastal communities.
“The risk of many weather-related extreme events is growing as the planet warms, and some of those impacts are coming fast and furious now,” Carolyn Kousky, an economic policy expert at the Environmental Defense Fund and longtime property insurance researcher, told NPR.
In addition, national studies have found that white communities experience higher levels of reinvestment after natural disasters compared to other communities. Black families often see a decrease in wealth in areas with substantial damage.
These compounding issues — Black homeowners forced into climate-vulnerable neighborhoods because of past discrimination, and priced out of insurance because of present-day discrimination — are threatening homeownership stability, financial security, and the ability of Black families to build and pass down generational wealth.
Trump’s tariffs also add fuel to the fire, as his tariff policy is expected to increase home insurance costs in North Carolina by $103.
In addition, the Trump administration’s cuts to disaster relief at the Department of Housing and Urban Development and attempts to eliminate FEMA would also increase the cost of home insurance.
For more information about the housing crisis, find more information on Climate Power’s site.
