From the N&O:
As many North Carolinians — and out-of-staters with beach property here — have learned, the Beach Plan in recent years has become the insurer of first resort, not last. It has grown astonishingly, adding $1 billion in new coverage a month; for a total of about $70 billion.
From Gary D. Robertson at the AP:
But legislators and coastal residents said the committee’s recommendation — particularly to reduce maximum coverage on residential properties from $1.5 million to $750,000 — will require homeowners to look for expensive coverage to cover above what the Beach Plan wouldn’t…
The committee rejected a proposal by Rep. Bruce Goforth, D-Buncombe, to bar the Beach Plan from issuing policies on secondary vacation homes in the 18-county coastal region. He said these homeowners should be forced to buy the higher-priced private policies.
From Wayne Faulkner at Star News Online:
But Stiller says that only two or three companies out of 103 licensed in North Carolina will write wind and hail policies in the Wilmington area, so homeowners often have no choice but to buy coverage under the Beach Plan.
From Mike Voss at the Washington Daily News:
House Bill 26, filed by Spear last week, also would impose a moratorium on insurance-rate increases for any permanent home valued at $150,000 or less. On Monday, after it passed its first reading, the bill was referred to the Committee on Rules, Calendar and Operations of the House. The moratorium would expire May 1, 2011…
Existing policies permit the state-run insurance plan for coastal communities, known as the Beach Plan, to charge homeowners in 18 coastal counties 25 percent more than the insurance industry’s base rate for a homeowner’s policy, according to Spear…
His bill would prohibit that surcharge increase and a 15-percent surcharge for windstorm and hail coverage from taking effect. It also would block a recommended change in the deductible allowed under the plan, which would increase to 2 percent of the insured value of the house…
“In many places, wind insurance exceeds property taxes and utilities,” Classen said.
As far as I’m concerned they can drop coverage for barrier island and 1st/2nd/3rd row properties or make those rates reflect their true cost instead of pro-rating it among those of use who don’t live in such risky locations. If that kills the market so be it. I’m tired of funding other people’s vacation homes via premiums or wasting state tax money for it.
You want to play, you gotta pay and pay through the nose.
The recommended 50% drop in coverage limit will go along way toward addressing that problem.
House Bill 56 seems a strange way to deal with the problem.
I’m not hopeful of a federal program to reinsure these policies.
I’m more worried about the poor folks down east.
As an outsider, I’m curious how this all works.
Sounds like what hugh said – so who’s fighting it ?
Is this about growth’s unintended consequences ?
Not all the counties are experiencing explosive growth. Those which are like Hanover with Wilmington, don’t lie on the water. It seems to me a distinction should be made between the beach properties and everything else.
Again, cutting the limit in half helps.
One of the strange characteristics of a hurricane is that we’ve had terrible damage as far west as Charlotte with Hugo. So, the entire state probably should bear some of the burden.
And remember of the 103 companies chartered to do business in the state, all of them contribute to the beach plan.
I know of one domiciled here that is paying the ultimate price for that exposure. If you had a homeowner policy, they wrote the beach property with disastrous results.
Messin with the site ? My eyes are having problems – play the Outer Limiits Intro.
I never saw the any of the 2nd run.
I’m trying out a new WordPress theme. It’s very intelligent.
Loads FAST !
like the new site
Thanks. It’s getting there.
Pretty.
fec: this is so gay, but i love it. It makes you look thin. It takes 10 years off of everyone else too.
I’ll put some less gay photos in the header, not that there’s anything wrong with those.
the group which benefits from taxpayer subsidized coverage is not the homeowners. They only get reimbursed if the property is restored to the original condition after a catastrophe. Banks are the benefactors of these assigned risk programs. Banks expose themselves to more risk by writing these loans. Homeowners are paid only if they restore the dwelling to the bank’s satisfaction. This is the meaning of “total replacement cost coverage.” The government has already declared who “the homeowners” are in the first bailout. It’s not the residents of the houses. It’s the first lien holder.
Wouldn’t it be a shame if the rich weren’t able to get a mortgages for their beach homes?
Rush Limbaugh paid cash for his Miami castle and has no insurance coverage due to cost. Let these fat fuckers insure themselves.
So what’s your source for your header pics ? I’ve seen nature and military pics so far.
Last night I quickly went through my library and picked up a few things. I steal at every opp.
hey: you don’t have to be rich to get a mortgage(“grip unto death”). You could get 1 or 2 as far back as 2 years ago. All you had to do is prove that you could not afford it. When the unconscious is doing the herding, nothing can keep em from running off a cliff. Piles of skeletal remains exist all over the earth as a monument to this behavior.
Last night Obama was lamenting that Winnebago had no access to credit and could therefore not finance any RVs. Things are so bad that manufacturers were making as much on usury as the actual product.
Feclamentus: Usury is the national bird, tree and flower. Don’t go dissin’ it just because it leaves nations and citizens in ruins. By the way, Rushdie in GSO tonight and one of the best weekends to visit Wlliamsburg Va this weekend. Programs and interpretters are online.
Thanks, but I’m staying put. Somebody might wanna cash in the fatwa.
Everything’s up in the air around here. She’s got the bug really bad, apparently. Looking at properties and all that.
I can’t smell the bottom yet. Sure would be nice if the dollar had some value when we get there, but I guess not.
When a future race of aliens finds our remains, usury will be judged the cause of our civilicide.
at these events i have attended since the Bryan Lecture Series began, they get questions from the audience on notecards before the lecture begins. The questions are selected by the sponsoring media and given to the lecturer, for usually the last 45 minutes. I will ask Rushdie ,”when did you start hating Allah” and ” have you stopped beating your ex-wives with a shoe?” Do you have any questions for him, if I can sneak them in?
Thanks for the opp. Ask him what it’s like to lose the perfect woman.
fec de no softballs: you know how to ask the tough ones. i know guys who would pay $5.95 just to hear her break wind thru a walkie-talkie.
He can’t even look forward to Paradise, having already had it.