Nearly 7.8 million American houses with a combined reconstruction cost value (RCV) of more than $2.3 trillion are susceptible to hurricane-related damages, according to CoreLogic’s recently published 2022 Hurricane Report. According to the analysis, approximately 33 million properties with a combined RCV of around $10.5 trillion are in danger of hurricane-force wind damage. In 2022, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Association (NOAA) predicts an above-normal hurricane season with up to 21 named storms, 10 hurricanes, with three to six of those hurricanes potentially becoming significant hurricanes.
According to Dr. Daniel Betten, Chief Meteorologist at CoreLogic, “this hurricane season might be exceptionally catastrophic for the U.S. Gulf Coast due to warmer-than-normal Atlantic Ocean temperatures, a continuing La Nia, and a stronger than typical loop current in the Gulf of Mexico.” The sixth La Nina event in the past seven years, despite the fact that they generally happen once every three years, will likely occur this fall.
Since storms have an impact on local communities much beyond the immediate aftermath of destruction, insurers play a crucial role in promoting community resilience by ensuring adequate property and flood insurance. The storms have a negative impact on the housing market in the United States, with observable increases in mortgage default rates and drops in home supply. In Houma, Louisiana, 30-day mortgage delinquencies increased from 1% to 7% after Hurricane Ida hit in August 2021. An oil price decline in the early stages of the epidemic had already harmed the Houma economy. Because of Hurricane Ida’s added impact, housing prices recovered slowly, and rents declined as people moved to other neighborhoods.
For the 2022 hurricane season, CoreLogic assessed the storm surge and hurricane wind risk levels for SFRs and MFRs from Texas to Maine. The information contains the total expected RCV, which is determined by adding the costs of building supplies, tools, and labor, and under the assumption that the property will be completely destroyed. It is important to keep in mind that it is extremely unlikely that a hurricane season will affect all properties that are at danger or cause complete home destruction. These numbers serve as a point of comparison but do not predict what will happen this season
The top 15 metropolitan areas and states in terms of the proportion of SFRs and MFRs at danger of storm surge and wind damage were studied by CoreLogic.
With almost 900,000 dwellings and an RCV of over $432 billion at danger of storm surge damage and more than four million residences and an RCV of more than $2.2 trillion at risk of wind damage, the New York City metro area poses the highest risk.
The Miami metro region comes next, with more than two million residences and over 770,000 properties totaling almost $193 billion in RCV that are at risk of storm surge damage and wind damage, respectively.
The states with the most residences at risk of storm surge damage are Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, with more than three million, almost 911,000, and more than 542,000 households at risk, respectively.
With more than 8.8 million houses at risk, Texas leads the list for hurricane wind risk.