NEW ORLEANS — The WWL Louisiana news team has seen and heard the same things residents are hearing and seeing. People saying their homeowners insurance rates are up 50, 60, 100 percent and more for at least a second consecutive year.
People who budgeted more and cut out things to accommodate the increase in 2022 are finding out they have to do that much – and more this year and some are finding they can’t make ends meet.
We’ve seen the social media posts and read through some scary threads as people ask if they will be able to afford to stay in the region they love.
Most mortgage holders require people to have homeowners insurance as part of their contract. Some are required to have flood insurance as well.
“There seems to be a lot of fear about the affordability of staying in the area we live in,” said St. Charles Parish Justice of the Peace Zack Young. After Hurricane Ida, his insurance company left the state and the new one offered him insurance at 250 percent more than he was paying.
He’s had another increase this year.
“There’s a huge amount of concern,” said Young.
WWL Louisiana made a Facebook post Tuesday night, asking followers if they had gotten their renewals and if they’d gone up a lot.
We got an earful, or, an inbox full of responses.
Here are some of them.
“Mine went from $2,700 last year to $7,300 with (name withheld by us) this year,” said Lisa Sinclair.
“Homeowners insurance is almost 3 times what mortgage is,” said Myron Romero.
“Mine went from $2,500 to $10K,” said Donna Muller Hayes.
People were reporting horror story bills in St. Charles Parish, Lafitte in Jefferson Parish, New Orleans, Lafourche and Terrebonne.
“My premium has doubled two years in a row,” said Dana A. Paddock.
WWL Louisiana current and former employees have been reporting similar findings with some having nearly doubled for a second consecutive year, raising monthly mortgage payments and cutting money available for other things.
WWL Louisiana will be reporting on the insurance crisis and things that you might be able to do to lower the bill (lower it from the new higher rate, not lowering it from what it was), options you might have, who is writing policies and how you can get them. We’ll be questioning state officials about what they intend to do to make things less costly.
When you add the jumps in flood insurance, it’s getting hard for residents to stay above water (pun intended).
“How can we continue to live here at that point?” asked Lisa Duhe Vicknair.
She’s not alone. We hope to get some answers.