E&E News: “‘Negative’ Outlook Given to US Homeowners Insurance Sector”
This article quotes RFF Nonresident Fellow Carolyn Kousky about the growing risk of weather-related disasters for homeowners and homeowners insurance companies.
A leading credit rating firm said Monday that U.S. insurance companies that sell homeowners policies face a future of major losses — prompting the firm to assign the homeowners sector a “negative” outlook for the first time.
AM Best said it dropped its outlook for the home insurance sector from “stable” to "negative" in large part because of “elevated natural catastrophes” and “more frequent” weather-related events that cause major home damage.
The report cites the recent Hawaii wildfires, Hurricane Idalia in Florida, severe storms in the Southeast and major flooding in the Northeast from excessive rain.
“The growing concern is that these risks are projected to just be continuing their upward trend,” said Carolyn Kousky, associate vice president for economics and policy at the Environmental Defense Fund.
