How to Shop for a Home That Won’t Be Upended by Climate Change

All sellers and their agents need to comply with any disclosure laws in their state or local area, but some places have far stronger buyer protections than others.

Five states — including Alabama, Arkansas, Massachusetts, West Virginia and Wyoming — have a “buyer beware” policy, according to which sellers aren’t required to disclose all defects unless directly asked, according to the Association of Real Estate License Law Officials, a trade group, which has a list of disclosures required by each state. Sellers are still obliged to provide accurate and honest information.

But most home sellers should generally disclose all known “material defects” and anything else that might affect the value of the property, whether that’s structural, mechanical or otherwise. And a majority of states demand them to disclose flood risks.

In most places, sellers aren’t required to provide copies of inspection reports, but you should ask for them, as well as a list of items that were recently repaired. They may offer some clues to any potential problem areas.

In California, sellers and their agents must disclose if a property is in any of six natural hazard zones, which include certain areas deemed to be vulnerable to flooding, fire or earthquakes. The information must be communicated within seven days after an offer has been accepted, and buyers are allowed three to five days to back out of the deal. Sellers must also disclose any past insurance claims on the property as part of a seller property questionnaire .

California doesn’t require disclosures in advance of an offer. In some areas of the state it’s common to make them, but in others it’s rare, explained Brian A. Manson, senior vice president and general counsel at the California Association of Realtors.

More recently, the association paired up with FortressFire, a wildfire modeling and mitigation company, to prepare Wildfire Disclosure Reports that identify a home’s vulnerabilities and potential insurability challenges. By the end of the year, the reports will be mentioned in the standard purchase contracts used in all transactions across the state — but either the buyer or seller will need to agree to pay for it.

Both companies rate properties on five risks — floods, fire, heat, wind and air quality — and offer some detail in each category. They license data from First Street, a company that generates data on climate risk for governments, companies and individuals.

Redfin posts information for every address in the United States, which allows current residents to assess their risk. Sellers and landlords get a preview of what others might see (and ask about). Zillow posts information only on properties for sale. You’ll need to scroll down the landing pages for any given property to find it.

Redfin allows sellers and real estate professionals to request that the company take First Street’s data down. Zillow does not.

Yes. First Street allows individuals to purchase a subscription. It costs $36.99 per month.

We’ll offer many more specifics below about particular risks like fire or flood.

But for wide-ranging searchable websites besides First Street, try Portfolio Protect, which was created by an affordable housing nonprofit, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s National Risk Index map (search by census tract and not by county for the most detailed assessment).

You can also learn a lot through focused searches in online communities like Facebook groups. Search for the town or neighborhood that you’re curious about; if the group you are interested in is private or moderated, ask if it allows home shoppers in to ask questions.

While groups on Nextdoor and the Ring Neighbors app can devolve into paranoia and big arguments over tiny things, the extreme vigilance among their many users means that some of those individuals are repositories of memories. Ask them anything.

Treat this task as if you were a reporter doing research for a long article. You can start by finding people to talk to.

Visit an elected official’s office and explain that you’re looking to learn more about the history of heat, floods, hurricanes and other extreme weather in the area. Ask those you speak to what they would want to know if they were moving in. Do the same thing with reference staff at the local public library. Look up journalists who write about local climate issues and drop them a note asking for their favorite public sources of information and other reading material.

If you learn of trouble spots, take a walk in those neighborhoods and chat with local business owners. Look up community meetings and see if you can listen in on Zoom or review past recordings. Go to dog runs, playgrounds, pickleball courts and other places where people tend to gather for a while and might be willing to talk.

And if you have your eye on a property that has lingered on the market, write down the street numbers for nearby addresses. Then, send a short, friendly letter (you can often look up owners’ names online) asking any questions you have; remember to include an email address for people to reply. Sure, it’s a bit forward, but it’s a lot better than being surprised later.

Finally, take a look around with wide eyes and your antennae high. In urban areas with fire risk, there may be recreational trails near homes. Are there teens there smoking pot? Unhoused people who start fires to keep themselves warm or cook? Do people set off fireworks for fun? Are there power lines nearby that could malfunction?

Maps and algorithms may account for weather, but fires can start from lots of things other than lightening.

Start with federal government data, and specifically with this United States Department of Agriculture web page, which defines four crucial terms: likelihood, intensity, exposure and susceptibility.

The Federal Emergency Management Association maintains a county-by-county map with general risk scores. The Department of Agriculture offers its own map as well as tips, and the results page links to more information.

States — especially fire-prone ones — have their own data sets. In California, the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention maintains an online map that allows you to search the boundaries of past fires.

While fire has been in the news more recently and can leave total destruction in its wake, heat is ever-present in some parts of the country — and is occurring more often in places where it used to be rare, like the Pacific Northwest.

Perhaps you’re used to it or think you are. Nevertheless, if you’re considering a move somewhere that might be warmer than where you currently live, try visiting for at least a week first, preferably when it’s warmest. See how much time you actually spend outside. Ask yourself if you resent being indoors or dislike the constant air-conditioning.

Then, consider two possibilities: the likelihood that the place in question will get warmer, and the possibility that as you age various conditions might make you less tolerant of the weather.

To help people assess their heat-related health risk, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s website has a heat tracker that allows you to search by ZIP code. Midway down the results page, you can see how the temperature from the most recent year’s heat season compares with historical averages.

The U.S. Global Change Research Program, a joint effort of several federal agencies, publishes an interactive map that shows the growth in the number of heat waves, going back to 1961, in the 50 largest U.S. cities. The program uses a somewhat technical definition, describing a heat wave as two or more consecutive days when the humidity-adjusted minimum temperature exceeds the 85th percentile of historical July and August temperatures for a given city.

The number of heat waves each year is currently about three times what it was in the 1960s.

The map also shows how long heat-wave seasons last — and how that figure has grown. The program measures season length by counting the number of days between the first heat wave and the last one each year. The average season is 46 days longer now than it was in the 1960s.

This one is a bit complicated.

Start with the Federal Emergency Management Association flood maps, since they can help you determine whether a mortgage company might require you to get flood insurance and how much that will cost. (You can read more about flood insurance here.) The maps indicate what areas are in the so-called 100-year floodplain, where there is a 1 percent (or greater) chance of flooding in any given year. They do not necessarily measure where floods have occurred before.

Begin at the flood map service center page, where you can enter your address. Some areas have no maps.

The maps are complicated enough that they require their own tutorial, which is also on the agency’s website. Keep an eye out for signs that your map is under review and thus might change soon.

FEMA is supposed to review its flood maps every five years and change them if conditions evolve, but it doesn’t always meet that goal. Each map should have a date on it. As of 2022, there were 3,300 communities with maps that were over 15 years old.

Residents can (and do) request changes as well. Some people worry that updated maps that designate their homes as flood-prone can affect property values. You can check for the existence of any requests for changes on FEMA’s website by clicking on the state and then searching by town.

Make sure to visit the FEMA web page that allows you to search by neighborhood and address for properties that have filed repeated flood insurance claims. If you’re worried, you can search several nearby addresses close to any place you’re considering. Your specific address could be a dwelling that never had flood insurance but, like neighboring properties, had major damage.

No, and agency officials acknowledge it plainly. In a 2022 CNN interview, the administrator at the time, Deanne Criswell, said that the maps covered coastal and river flooding. The maps don’t account for the kind of record rainfall that can come from climate change or recent construction that might have affected how water flows. The agency devotes an entire publication to explaining how its maps may not reflect or predict urban flooding, in particular. The possibility of levee or dam failures aren’t always part of FEMA’s calculus. And as of 2022, it had assessed less than a third of the 3.5 million streams in the country.

Some cities, like New York, have published their own maps to explain the risk. A similar effort covers Houston and other parts of Southeast Texas.

In 2020, a FEMA assistant administrator testified in Congress that the agency’s maps “may give a false impression to communities outside of the 1 percent annual chance flood plain that they have little to no flood risk.” As FEMA notes on its website, more than 40 percent of federal flood insurance claims — where the policy pricing is based off the maps — come from outside the areas that the agency designates as high risk. A 2022 study by researchers at North Carolina State University put the figure even higher.

In 2024, many of the flooded homes in North Carolina were not in areas that the FEMA maps had marked as hazardous. In Vermont, the 2023 floods hit many areas where the government had not updated the maps in a decade or more.

First Street, a for-profit company that consults with and sells data to insurance companies and governments, has made a practice of harshly criticizing FEMA’s flood maps and the fact that the agency does not make many projections.

In 2024, First Street used its proprietary data and methods on Hurricane Debby in North Carolina. The company claimed that its own data had predicted flood locations and depths, and that 78 percent of flooded properties were outside FEMA’s flood zones.

First Street gives some basic information away when you search for an address. In-depth reports require $36.99 for a 12-month subscription, after a free seven-day trial.

ClimateCheck is another for-profit data provider. It has a bit more forward-looking, free data than First Street has and will send out a 30-plus page report. The company also includes information on climate risks beyond floods. Its models ominously predicted that, by 2050, Ron’s street will see four times the current number of days above 92 degrees per year.

Yale Climate Connections, which is part of the Yale Center for Environmental Communication, published an excellent article in 2023 that included 30 tools for researching your flood risk and expressed some skepticism about First Street’s and ClimateCheck’s efforts.

It’s worth testing many of the tools mentioned by the article’s author, Jeff Masters, one of the founders of Weather Underground and a former federal government hurricane scientist.

The federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has data going back to 1992 on hail, tornado and lightning incidents. You can search by address. FEMA maintains maps measuring the risk for hurricanes, tornadoes and hail.

This should be an easy one to figure out. Often, a real estate listing will provide you with that information. A listing for the home should mention it, though you’ll want to double-check with the owner or any sales professional who is representing a seller.

Sometimes, the current owners or landlord will have recent inspections or reports on the water situation. It can’t hurt to ask about them, and if they won’t hand them over or things seem uncertain, this is your prompt to dig further using the other questions about water down below.

Your next stop should be My Waterway, a comprehensive website run by the Environmental Protection Agency. Type in an address and look for a series of tabs — including some that run off the screen and that you might miss if you’re not careful.

If you hit the “drinking water” tab and scroll down, you’ll see where water in the area tends to come from. Scroll further down, and you’ll find a list of local water authorities (if you don’t have your own well and rely on the local government or another entity to provide water).

Other tabs include water monitoring, identified issues and plans for restoration, if any. You’ll want to read all of it.

Is big trouble already looming? It may or may not be a deal killer. There may be a well you could drill if other supplies run dry (at a large cost, which is something to keep in mind). Perhaps rainwater collection is a possibility. Try to ask around to see if neighbors have researched or implemented other options.

A lot. At the end of 2024, every state except Alaska and Kentucky was experiencing at least moderate drought levels. You can see a map of how it looked in this New York Times article.

High temperatures can cause drought, since the heat removes moisture from both the atmosphere and the ground. For reference, you can look at current drought data by state using Drought.gov, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website.

On the map on each state’s page, you’ll see an experimental effort called Long-Term MIDI, which stands for multi-indicator drought index. It pulls in several bits of data on moisture and precipitation to make projections up to five years into the future.

Predicting drought beyond that is difficult, and experts are skeptical of governmental and commercial efforts to do so. “As someone who has been working on climate since 1988 and totally believes that climate change is caused by human activity, do I find these projections credible?” said Upmanu Lall, director of the Columbia Water Center at the university’s climate school. “Sadly, no.”

Future drought conditions will depend on the weather and everything that affects that, as patterns change and mitigation efforts are adopted (or never begin in the first place).

Still, it’s worth visiting FEMA’s national risk index maps if you haven’t already. Type in an address and then use the drop-down menu on the top left that says “Risk Index” and select “Drought.”

It’s also wise to find and join a local Facebook or other neighborhood group and do a search on “water” to see what turns up.

Once you’ve found the relevant local authority using the Environmental Protection Agency’s My Waterway resource, check out the authority’s website. Look for news releases from recent years, and see what articles local journalists have written that mention the authority by name.

Aside from standard-issue industrial or agricultural contamination of fresh water on the surface, one growing problem is “saltwater incursion,” or seawater intrusion, as hydrologists sometimes refer to it. For anyone close to an ocean, you’ll want to look out for it.

Saltwater incursion can occur when there is too much pumping from freshwater aquifers in the ground that are not replenishing at a fast enough rate, perhaps because of increasing instances of drought. Ocean water finds its way into the aquifer, the taste changes and then the water can become dangerous to consume.

If fracking is going on nearby or might be in the near future, you’ll want to look into possible contamination as well.

In areas where water comes from aquifers underground, overuse is a hazard. Moreover, there may not be state or local laws that protect you if a neighbor sucks up all the water. If that happens, then you’re at the mercy of the courts — and potentially spending a lot of money for lawyers.

Farms are among the biggest users of water. Data centers may need a lot of it, too, for cooling purposes. Fracking can also affect the quantity of drinking water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. If any of those users are nearby or drawing on the same water as you might, it’s worth further research.

The real estate specialist helping to sell any property might have names of local well professionals, and it certainly can’t hurt to talk to them. The owner may have recent inspection reports as well. Also ask if the current owners did any testing when they first moved in, as it might serve as a useful benchmark for how things have changed over time.

Still, you may want to seek help from a person who is not handpicked by someone trying to sell you something. Try finding a local member of the American Institute of Hydrology. Its directory is not easily searchable online, but we have posted a copy of it on our website. The National Ground Water Association’s state-by-state web page has links to websites for state governments and other entities that may have lists of local contractors.

Well-drilling contractors can often assess current wells, and it should be easy to find people who do that work if there are many other wells nearby.

Possibly not. One of the most surprising takeaways from the 2023 water supply series of articles that our colleagues reported is that there is not much governmental regulation. The oversight is scattershot, too, as the federal government is barely involved. Government officials acknowledge, more or less, that they are reluctant to mess with people’s property values even if they do know about threats to the water supply.

Here’s what Christopher Neel, the head of water rights for the Oklahoma Water Resources Board, said: “If we show an area may be depleted in, let’s say, two years, well, if someone tries to sell that property, they’re not going to be able to.” In Colorado, they don’t even have the authority to keep track.

That said, states sometimes step in once things get really bad. A town in Utah put a halt on new building altogether when a mountain spring dried up. Arizona has made similar moves in the greater Phoenix area. And Mississippi and Tennessee ended up at the Supreme Court over a dispute about how Memphis’s use of water created problems across state lines.

Start with the date the property was built or significantly renovated. That’s information the seller should have.

The year is important, because you’re going to want to know what the rules were then. Even in the last 25 years or so, there have been advances in areas including material science as well as awareness of various climate risks. If a property was built according to old rules and hasn’t been touched much since, you’re going to want to know what those rules required — and what they allowed.

Some local building departments are better than others at providing documents online.

Among other sources to mine is Inspect to Protect, part of an advocacy initiative to make homes more “disaster-resistant,” which suggests specific upgrades for residential addresses based on the year a home was built and the building code at the time. And UpCodes, an online platform, has consolidated building codes in a free online library for every state and many major cities. (Its paid service allows users to ask questions like “What are the requirements for making sure my home is flood proof?” and obtain responses linking to the relevant code in their area).

Artificial intelligence can also help you sort through vast troves of codes. Tools like Perplexity, an A.I.-powered search engine, provided a comprehensive answer when we asked, “What materials does the building code in Pacific Palisades allow me to use for a new roof and what is banned?” Perplexity also lists the sources it draws upon, which is helpful. But these aren’t always the most robust, so be sure to verify anything you find. In any case, it’s a solid starting point.

And if you can’t make sense of any of this, your inspector should know the local building codes very well. That’s the independent person you hire before sealing any deal. In recent decades, some buyers in hot markets have waived the right to do an inspection in an attempt to win bidding wars or land a property quickly.

Waiving the inspection is always risky, as one might miss things that are already broken or close to it. If you’re probing for climate vulnerability as well, you should insist on a detailed examination of the premises.

If you’re in or around wildfire country, look for noncombustible materials like concrete, fiber cement board, stucco, stone or brick. If you have shutters, those should also be made of noncombustible materials; the same goes for gutters and downspouts.

Homeowners living in regions that experience frequent hurricanes and windstorms would do well to invest in many of the same materials — and to upgrade any old vinyl siding, which can be particularly vulnerable, is also a good idea.

Whatever you decide, ensuring that the siding is properly installed and maintained can make a big difference in its life span and durability.

This largely depends on where you live and what aesthetics you’re after.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety has a section called Roof 101, which lays out how different roofing systems and materials — asphalt shingles, metal and tile — are made and what types of options you have in each category.

In storm-prone areas, the roof is the home’s first line of defense against wind and rain. One inch of water hitting an exposed roof deck — or the sheathing materials underneath — would be enough to fill nine bath tubs if it got inside, said Roy Wright, chief executive of the institute and a former chief executive of the National Flood Insurance Program. And even roofs that are still relatively young may begin to show signs of weakness — the sealant that holds asphalt shingles in place often begins to degrade after a decade and can fail when pummeled with high winds.

That’s why it’s important to have a sealed roof deck, which basically ensures that if shingles do fly off in a violent storm, water won’t be able to penetrate through any cracks because of the specially sealed protective layer underneath. The institute has more suggestions on bolstering your roof against storms, hail and more on its website.

If it’s wildfires you’re worried about, you want a roof with a Class A fire rating, which is considered the most fire resistant (and can be made with materials of all types — asphalt shingles, tile, slate and metal).

Wildfires can send embers into the air, which can blow into your home through any number of entry points, including vents in your roof, attic, crawl spaces and more.

Luckily, this is one of the easiest and cheapest issues to address. You can cover all of your existing vents, from the inside or the outside, with one-eighth-inch wire mesh, according to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. (You can test existing mesh with the tip of a pen or a golf tee — they shouldn’t fit through.)

Alternatively, you can install ember-resistant vents. Even better, use the slightly more expensive version that seals shut when it encounters direct heat.

Avoid using wire mesh with dryer vents, experts say, but ensure they have a flap or working louvers to keep embers out.

Yes. But the type of windows and protective coverings you’ll want to use or upgrade to will vary based on the type of risks present where you live.

Older homes often have single-pane windows, which are more vulnerable to breaking when exposed to flames and intense heat. Fire-resistant windows, on the other hand, will have at least two panes of glass separated by some airspace. Tempered glass is about four times more resistant to breaking during a wildfire and is usually the go-to option, according to Fire Safe Marin, a nonprofit in Marin County in California. Window screens can also help by shielding the glass from radiant heat — at least to some degree.

And if you have shutters, they should be made of noncombustible material. Fire Safe Marinhas some helpful tips and information on its website.

High winds and flying debris can damage or destroy windows (or doors with glass), but impact-resistant and pressure-rated glass can withstand more stress — and may even eliminate the need for hurricane shutters. But hurricane shutters, which roll down and serve as another protective layer, are often wise. Shutters tested to Miami-Dade’s standard and code requirements offer the best protection.

Indeed. The garage door is the largest opening of many houses, and if strong winds blow the door in, pressure can build within the home, pushing up on the roof and out onto the exterior walls.

“You create a pressure change inside the structure, and that is how roofs pop off,” said Roy Wright, chief executive of the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, a research group.

Garage-door damage can then lead to structural problems in other parts of the home, which is why if you live in an area prone to severe windstorms and hurricanes, a wind-rated garage door is a worthy investment.

It can be tricky to figure out if your garage door is the stronger, wind-rated one. Even though modern building codes generally require garage doors to withstand high winds, before 2006 garage doors didn’t need to be wind-rated in the United States (except in Florida), according to the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety. And there are still newer homes that may not have the more robust doors.

Look for wind-rating labels on the inside of the door, and see if the panel has been tested to one of three standards, ASTM E330, ANSI/DASMA 108 or Florida Building Code TAS 202, the institute said.

Don’t remove the labels.

A stand-alone garage eliminates the risk that your home’s roof may fly off altogether if the garage door fails, so if you’re building from the ground up, it’s worth considering.

It depends. There is no federal law that grants you the right to install solar panels. There is a growing number of so-called solar access state laws that address the issue. An energy company called Palmetto published a list of them on its website in 2024, and it’s easy enough to search online for any recent developments in your own state.

Why are these laws necessary? Legislators were inspired to pass them in part because some homeowners associations don’t like the way solar panels look, or have other objections that lead to restrictions.

As with anything you attach to your house, the panels themselves may be vulnerable to wind or, especially, hail. Ask any installer about wind resistance; most solar panels should stand up to hail up to two inches or so in diameter.

For people in areas prone to hurricanes and power-damaging storms, the answer is yes.

There is a variety of reasons — it will keep your refrigerator running, supply well water if you have a well pump, enable you to work from home, power a sump pump and more, according to the experts at the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, the resiliency research and testing group.

Consumer Reports has a guide with more information and some product picks.

Start with the base of your house, from the ground up, the part that faces the elements. Embers can collect there, and you don’t want them to do so against a piece of wood siding. A retrofit using stone veneer or concrete fiberboard would improve safety.

Then, take a look at the five-foot area extending from each exterior wall. You don’t want anything combustible there, including plants or trees.

This sort of thing may not be entirely in your control. Several years ago, an engineer who worked for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety wanted to replace flammable pine straw mulch with gravel. Her homeowners association wouldn’t let her.

It’s possible to appeal that sort of thing, but not every homeowners association is reasonable, so it’s best to read the landscaping rules in detail before moving into a community governed by one.

Next, consider the distances from five to 30 feet from your exterior walls. If there’s anything combustible there — a kid’s play set, shrubbery, a grill, vehicles — make sure there is space around each item so that fire can’t move from one to the next.

Certain kinds of wooden fencing do pose a fire risk, especially when you surround your entire property with it and place it close to your home or neighbors.

The risks compound when neighbors independently erect two wooden fences side by side along property lines (perhaps because they can’t agree on the aesthetics or the cost of sharing).

Ian Giammanco, managing director of standards and data analytics for the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, described a sequence of events that can unfold under those specific circumstances, as it did during the 2025 California fires. Debris may pile up between the fences over time and lie there without anybody knowing of it, let alone of the risk it entails. Then, during a drought, the debris dries. And when embers land on it, it becomes high-octane kindling.

Plenty, if it’s a densely populated area. None of us are as strong as all of us, nor as safe. If a nearby property seems like a fire trap, that becomes part of your risk assessment. You’ll want to examine such properties with the same scrutiny you bring to your own.

There are homebuilders who specialize in resiliency and consistently work with materials and techniques that are designed to withstand many types of disasters. Ask your neighbors and others in your community for recommendations.

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety, which studies and tests ways to make homes more resilient, has recommended construction standards based on its research, both for high wind and heavy rains, as well as wildfires. Homeowners who incorporate some or all of their guidance can receive different levels of certification (there’s an application fee). That may generate savings on home insurance or even tax credits in some places.

This is a bit of a catchall, but what you’re trying to do is measure at least three things.

First, what are the potential threats that longtime community members have already identified? You’ve probably found many of those already through your own research, so you’ll know what sort of things to look for. If fire is a risk, what efforts have people made, collectively, about, say, government-owned property nearby surrounded by brush that could serve as kindling?

Then, what was the community able to get done? Here, it might be worth trying to figure out who led the charge to act, who helped along the way and who stood in the way or tried to. Talk to them all — you never know what you’ll learn.

Finally, what are the overall appetite and capacity for improvements? What proposals have amounted to nothing and why?

This is a question about budgets. The size of budgets depends more than a little on taxes — and the politicians who levied or raised them or didn’t want taxes to go up. It’s also about how your future neighbors would vote in some kind of direct ballot action, say, for a bond issue to pay for better infrastructure (and about how any credit rating agency would take climate risk into account when underwriting a bond offering.)

There should be basic tax information on any real estate listing you look at, and it’s easy to research who sets tax rates and how.

Understanding the politics of any given area requires some more work, but it’s certainly worth doing. Start by figuring out who your most local representative would be — it may be a city councilor or the equivalent in a town or village. Perhaps county administrators have more power than average, or there’s a state legislature where votes on issues you care about tend to be close.

Whoever and wherever those people are, take a look at their websites and hunt around for information on legislative or regulatory actions. Show up at their local offices and ask questions to staff members there, or call someone up if you can’t visit in person. Often there is a point person who knows the most about particular issues.

It may also be tempting to look up voter registration totals in any region where you may live. While there may be any number of reasons for doing that, don’t necessarily assume that the national Republican Party’s skeptical views on climate and taxes will affect local levels. People often vote with their pocketbooks, and if a home is among each neighbor’s biggest assets, they may support heavier taxes (or politicians who want to implement them) in local elections in an effort to protect that home.

It’s one thing to have the political will to shore up a community’s defenses. It’s another to have the means to pay for it.

The unfortunate truth is that if your neighbors and fellow voters have more money than average, your home may be safer. Wealthier people may be more likely to vote to spend more to shore up any given community. They can use political donations to try to bend elected officials to their wills. And history shows that wealthier communities get more than their fair share of climate-related federal grants.

This is not as it should be, but if you’re a parent who has sent or is sending children to public schools, you understand the basic calculus. Wealthier communities, on average, spend more per student and can raise more money to augment the budget.

With climate resiliency, it’s often no different. Buying one of the cheapest houses in one of the wealthiest communities could give you some extra level of protection, all other factors being equal.

The U.S. Census Bureau maintains a median income map. The search results can be a bit funky if you try to search by ZIP code, but if you use the plus sign in the top-right corner of the map you can drill down to the ZIP-code level to see income figures.

You’d be surprised.

Maybe people don’t like the look of drought-resistant landscaping and get themselves elected to the board of their association to impose their will. Perhaps board members use their garages as workshops and insist on parking their cars on the street because the driveway is too small, and there the vehicles may impede fire trucks. Siding, shingles — so much is subject to the aesthetics of people who may not concern themselves with the long odds that terrible things might happen.

So how do you know what and who you’re dealing with? You should be able to read through a couple of years’ worth of minutes from association board meetings. And if someone is trying to keep that information from you until you’re an owner, that ought to tell you something.

Start with the standard newspapers: the nearest daily newspaper and the community weeklies that cover your area of interest. Then, do a search for any nonprofit digital publications; many have started up in the last decade or so. Check to see if any nearby universities have students reporting on the community you are focusing on. Local NPR affiliates may have news coverage of the area as well.

You may not find much, given the state of the news media industry. But even if you track down only a few articles published over a few years, pay attention to the sources the reporters quote. Those people — as well as their organizations or offices — are often the leaders and advocates on resiliency, and they may be good resources.

This may be the hardest thing to sniff out, and it may not apply if there has never been a large-scale disaster. But if there has been one, as you go about finding members of the community to talk to, ask them this: Who showed up for the residents who had lost the most? Are some of the homeowners not around much of the year? Do people feel as if they have neighbors they can turn to when things get scary?

When individuals think about whether to leave an area after a disaster, one of the things that can dissuade them is the emotional anchor of feeling as if they’re part of something. Ironically, strong bonds and a sense that everyone stands together in crisis may make them feel safer than they might feel as strangers in a place that is more climate-safe on paper.

Homeowners’ insurance protects the structure of your home and your belongings. In the event of a total disaster, it is supposed to cover the cost to rebuild your home or repair it to its pre-damage condition — not to its market value — as long as the damage was caused by perils outlined in the policy.

But standard homeowners’ and renters’ insurance policies don’t cover all hazards. Wildfires are usually folded in, for example, but floods and earthquakes generally require separate coverage. In hurricane-prone areas, wind and hail coverage may carry its own deductible or be a separate policy.

If you endure a total catastrophic loss, you will probably still be required to pay any remaining mortgage on your property, even if your home was swept away by a hurricane or burned to the ground. The insurance payout should be enough to rebuild, provide temporary shelter and cover additional expenses.

Polices don’t provide a chance to upgrade your home’s finishes. If you want to rebuild with marble countertops but you had laminate, it’s up to you to pay the difference.

If you have a mortgage, your lender — or the quasi-governmental entities, including Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, that back or insure many loans — essentially decide.

Traditional homeowners’ policies often cover most of the perils that lenders require, from fire and lightning to windstorms and hail. But that’s not always the case, especially in higher-risk areas. If a specific peril is excluded, you’ll need to buy a separate policy to fill in any gaps. Properties in special flood hazard areas, for example, will often be required to carry flood insurance.

Homeowners will generally need to buy enough coverage to pay for 100 percent of the cost to rebuild the home (at the current market rates), or at least an amount equal to the unpaid mortgage balance, provided it’s no less than 80 percent of the cost to rebuild. (Deductibles can generally be no more than 5 percent of the coverage amount.)

But if the policy is canceled or lapses because the owner failed to pay the premiums, for example — your lender can charge you for a “force placed” policy. This (often pricey) type of policy is paid by the homeowner as part of their mortgage payment, but only protects the lender’s financial interests. But homeowners always have the ability to get their own coverage and cancel the lender- placed policy.

Insurance carriers have their own minimums and will penalize policyholders if they don’t insure up to at least, say, 80 or 90 percent of the replacement cost. If the percentage falls below that, the insurer may not fully cover a claim.

Rules on condo coverage may differ, so check with the association you are interested in buying into for more information.

Any exclusions, along with other subtle details that may cost you more out of pocket, will vary depending on where you live. Even with the same insurer, the fine print in one state may differ from the fine print in another, explained Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, an advocacy group. “It is very, very regional,” added Ms. Bach. “Ask, ‘What local risk might be limited or excluded in this policy?’”

In coastal areas on the Atlantic Ocean, for example, there may be exclusions for windstorm-related damage requiring a separate windstorm policy, rider or deductible. (Hippo, an online insurer, has a helpful guide on this specific peril.) But that’s not something you’d need to worry about in California, for example.

Roof coverage is something else to ask about, especially if you live in an area where so-called convective storms — which include thunderstorms, tornadoes, hailstorms and derechos — are a growing or ever-present risk.

Asphalt roofs are especially vulnerable to damage during these storms, and insurers have taken notice. To keep overall premiums affordable while maintaining their own profitability, insurers are increasingly shifting costs on to policyholders in the form of separate deductibles or co-pays for roof repairs or replacements, according to a recent report from Aon, a professional services firm and insurance broker.

“Even when insurers continue to sell coverage, they are slashing the value of the protection, hollowing it out and increasing the deductibles homeowners face such that consumers are forced to retain more and more of the risk associated with owning a home,” said Douglas Heller, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America, the advocacy group. “A glaring example is the trend of policy language that limits payouts for roof damage.”

They’re all distinct, and this is where an experienced insurance agent can help translate how you may be affected.

In sum: Mudslides (when earth or rock moves downhill propelled by gravity), landslides (destabilized land caused by gradual erosion or water accumulation) and mudflows (rivers of mud) are also usually excluded from standard homeowners’ policies, according to the Insurance Information Institute. But mudflows are covered by flood insurance.

There could also be exceptions in certain places, including California. Let’s say a wildfire burned through all of the vegetation that had once sloped down to your home — and, one month later, a mudslide formed there after intense rains. Any related damages may be covered by your homeowners’ policy.

“The result of the loss had to originate from a covered peril,” said Don Griffin, department vice president of personal lines at the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

Property owners in flood-prone areas may be required by their lenders to purchase a separate flood insurance policy, since that coverage is typically not included in homeowners’ insurance policies. (Home insurance may cover damages from a burst pipe, but not when the water comes from a storm surge.)

Even if you’re not required to buy flood insurance, there may be good reason to get coverage anyway.

First, some background. Most flood insurance policies are issued through the federal National Flood Insurance Program, or N.F.I.P., which is managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The program uses FEMA flood maps to rate flood risk — and if you’re in a high-risk area and have a federally backed mortgage (most mortgages are), you’ll be required to buy a flood policy.

Here’s the problem: The maps illustrate a snapshot in time and aren’t necessarily predictive. They also don’t take into account the effects of intense rainfall, something that is exacerbated by a warming atmosphere. The main challenge is figuring out just how exposed you are. (Our history and projections section above can steer you to helpful resources.)

After all, about 40 percent of N.F.I.P. insurance claims from 2017 to 2020 were for properties that were either outside a special flood hazard area or in areas not mapped by FEMA, according to a senior FEMA official who testified before Congress in February 2020.

Then there was Hurricane Helene, the third-deadliest U.S. hurricane this century, which swept across the Southeast and caused catastrophic flooding in western North Carolina in 2024. Helene generated direct damage of $45 billion across the state, according to Aon’s 2025 Climate and Catastrophe Insight report, yet less than 2 percent of all residential structures there are typically covered under the N.F.I.P.

Once you figure out where your property sits on the risk spectrum, you can make a more informed decision about what coverage you need and how much to buy.

Consumers in high-risk areas are required to buy enough coverage to rebuild their home in the event of a total loss. But the national program has relatively low coverage limits: $250,000 for a residential building, and $100,000 for its contents (contents coverage is also available to renters).

For many homeowners, that won’t come close to covering the costs to rebuild. The National Flood Insurance Program’s policies also do not cover the loss of use of your home, nor do they provide coverage for temporary housing or living expenses.

But obtaining the maximum amount of federal flood coverage you’re eligible for will generally satisfy your lender’s requirements if you have a government-backed loan.

Private flood policies can offer much higher coverage limits, as well as extra benefits like “loss of use,” which pays lodging costs if your property is uninhabitable. But private insurers don’t have to offer any coverage if they deem a location too risky. And even if they extend coverage, it may be expensive. They can also decide not to renew a policy after a home experiences a flood.

The National Flood Insurance Program’s premiums may not fully reflect the true risk of the property, much to the dismay of anyone (environmentalists, legislators, taxpayers) who wants to discourage more building on coastlines and in places that are prone to flooding.

The median cost of a flood insurance policy nationwide was $930, including fees, as of Jan. 21, 2025, according to FEMA, which administers the program. Most rates cannot increase by more than 18 percent per year for a primary residence, or 25 percent for a secondary property like a vacation home.

But premiums have been creeping higher in many places. The National Flood Insurance Program revamped the way it calculates premiums in 2021 to better reflect the underlying flood risks, and many homeowners’ bills have been rising as a result (though some have seen no change or declines). If you buy a new home and purchase a new federal flood policy, you’ll pay the latest “full risk” rates, of course. But it’s also possible to take over a previous homeowner’s flood policy, which may not yet reflect the higher rates.

To get a sense of how much rates can rise, you can look at this map, which shows what the median premiums by county were as of 2022, as well as what the premiums would be if they fully baked in the true risk of the underlying properties there.

Premiums would need to rise by about 34 percent or more to convey the actual risk in about 10 states, according to an analysis of FEMA data by researchers at the Government Accountability Office, an investigative research arm of Congress.

Most policies (but not those from the National Flood Insurance Program) include “loss of use” and “additional living expense” coverage, which pays for costs incurred when you’re temporarily unable to live in your home because of a covered loss. That would apply to hotels, temporary rentals, as well as restaurant meals and other costs you may incur, such as laundry or storage units.

Homeowners that rent out part of their home can also be reimbursed for rental income they would have collected from the tenant had the home not been damaged, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

There are limits, of course. The coverage might provide up to 20 percent of the insurance you carry on your home (or, for renters, up to 40 percent of the policy amount), but that will vary by carrier. Coverage is also usually limited to one to three years, depending on where you live — but it stops once you can safely reinhabit your home.

If you have a policy that will pay up to $500,000 to rebuild your home, that means you’d might have up to $100,000 to use for temporary housing and living expenses (or, say, up to $40,000 on a $100,000 renter’s policy). Be sure to check those details.

Finding adequate and affordable coverage has been difficult in higher-risk areas, but it’s also becoming more of a challenge across the United States. That is forcing more homeowners to turn to nontraditional providers.

You’re going to need a guide. The best advice is to find a seasoned insurance agent who can help you navigate the market, which is fluid and always changing. In this environment, independent agents — who work with a variety of carriers and are well versed in alternatives — will be more useful than captive agents, who work with a single provider (like Allstate or State Farm).

Most states — about 34 at the moment — have some sort of “last resort” insurer, which generally must take all homeowners, even if they’ve been rejected elsewhere. These plans’ designs and costs vary, but the coverage is often narrower or only covers certain hazards (which insurers have usually backed away from). A majority of states call them Fair Access to Insurance Requirement, or FAIR, plans; these are established by the state but generally backed by private insurers.

The plans usually provide basic coverage — at a higher cost, in part because they take on the riskiest customers — and homeowners may need to buy supplemental policies (often called “difference in conditions” policies) from private insurers to fill in gaps. Such policies may also reimburse policyholders only based on “actual cash value,” or the depreciated cost of damaged items or property instead of the preferred replacement value, or what it would cost to buy or replace them.

There are also nontraditional private companies that specialize in higher-risk properties. People in the industry refer to these providers as surplus, specialty or non-admitted insurers — these carriers have not met the full state requirements where they’re operating and are more lightly regulated.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, these carriers come with fine print of their own: They don’t need to submit their rate increases for approval with states, as regulated insurers do. And unlike traditional insurers, they are not backed by state guarantees. In other words, if they fail and cannot pay out claims, the homeowner receives nothing. (You can learn more about insurers’ financial health — and their ability to pay claims — through ratings companies that track them, including AM Best, S&P Global Ratings and Moody’s.)

An experienced agent who works with non-admitted insurers should be able to help you navigate that market — in fact, many well-known insurers have non-admitted businesses. In California, the insurance departments maintains a List of Approved Surplus Line Insurers, which meet certain capitalization and other requirements.

As our colleagues reported in 2024, climate change is upending the homeowners’ insurance market, and the damage from more frequent and increasingly intense weather-driven disasters is spreading beyond the states that are typically ravaged. Indeed, homeowners’ insurance was unprofitable in 18 states in 2023, our colleagues’ investigation found, up from eight in 2013. You can learn about the health of the home insurance market in your state here.

More homeowners carriers’ are operating with eroding capital cushions. In just three years, from 2021 through 2023, 16 home insurers were impaired (that is, placed in a court-ordered conservation, rehabilitation or liquidation), according to the insurance ratings agency AM Best. That’s more than the 12 during the preceding decade, from 2011 to 2020.

That’s why it’s always so important to check the financial strength rating of any companies you plan to do business with — major rating companies like AM Best and Fitch Ratings have scorecards that help, though their scales vary. An insurance agent can help you make sense of it all.

When a property and casualty insurer does go belly up, there are safety nets for policyholders in the form of state guaranty associations, which are established by state law but privately funded by the insurance industry.

When an insurer fails, the guaranty fund will step in and pay covered claims. Policyholders will be covered up to certain limits by the guaranty fund: Most states maintain $300,000 caps, according to the National Conference of Insurance Guaranty Funds, though policyholders with larger claims can apply to the troubled insurer’s estate to get full payment. But that can take years to collect, if it happens at all.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners also keeps a searchable database of insurers, where you can find out how many and what types of complaints were filed against a company in a particular year.

There’s a bit of finger-pointing — and even litigation — about who is ultimately responsible for ensuring the estimate to rebuild is accurate and in line with local estimates. Practically speaking, an insurer is in the driver’s seat when it’s writing a homeowner’s policy: The company has far more resources, mounds of data and special software to draw from when assessing how much it would take to rebuild a specific home.

But the homeowner also needs to take the time to ensure the policy is adequate. United Policyholders, the advocacy group, suggests getting a second opinion.

There’s a lot to consider, and naturally everything will vary based on precisely the area and the home you live in. It’s a challenging calculation, especially when entire communities are leveled and costs are likely to rise further.

“These days, more and more lawyers are suing the agent/broker/insurer and the software company that generated the lowball valuation,” said Amy Bach, director of United Policyholders. More and more plaintiffs are winning, she added, but the case law doesn’t reflect that since the parties often settle before a published opinion emerges.

Disaster-prone California has regulations that try to help ensure replacement values are accurate. Insurers are required to provide updated estimates at least every other year upon policy renewal, for example, or offer renewals with replacement costs that are adjusted for inflation.

Replacement estimates in the state must also include a list of covered expenses, such as the cost to remove debris and that of materials used in interior features and finishes in the kitchen.

There may be coverage options that can be added to your existing policy, known as endorsements. One type ensures you will have enough money if you need to rebuild to new (and more expensive) building code requirements, for example.

And traditional insurance carriers in California offer something called “extended replacement cost coverage,” which may pay for the full cost to repair or replace your dwelling, even if it exceeds your coverage limit. “This gives clients an extra buffer,” said Michael Lynch, director of private client services at Marsh McLennan Agency. But that coverage may also be subject to certain caps and limits.

Homeowners usually come up short after a total catastrophic loss — an event that, on the whole, is rare. But the problem has become more widespread in recent years with more frequent disasters and higher rebuilding costs because of inflation.

Consider Coloradans, who in the summer of 2020 endured some of largest wildfires, which were then followed by the Marshall fires in Boulder County in December 2021. A year after the Marshall fires, more than 80 percent of respondents to a survey by United Policyholders said they didn’t have enough insurance to fully cover the cost to rebuild. They were underinsured by about an average of $110 per square foot — that means that the owner of an 1,800 square foot home would have been nearly $200,000 short.

Many Coloradans also needed to rebuild quickly, otherwise they risked running out of money for temporary housing at a time when hundreds of other homeowners would be calling the same contractors, architects and other suppliers. More than a quarter of homeowners said the coverage that paid for their temporary housing and additional living expenses had a 12-month limit.

Indeed, the average policy has also gone from covering more than 100 percent of the average home’s estimated market value between 2013 and 2015 to covering just 88 percent today, according to Intercontinental Exchange, a data and technology firm

Nationwide, homeowners’ insurance rates rose nearly 45 percent from 2019 through 2024, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

But those increases have varied wildly across the country: In Arizona they rose about 70 percent over that five-year period; in Colorado they grew nearly 79 percent; and Californians saw a 55 percent increase. In New York and New Jersey, premiums rose 23 and 24.4 percent. By contrast, they rose just under 18 percent in Maine and 12.7 percent in Vermont.

What used to be an afterthought for many homeowners is increasingly a bigger portion of the cost of homeownership. On average, insurance premiums now account for 9.4 percent of overall monthly housing payments (which include mortgage principal, interest, taxes and insurance) — the highest that percentage has ever been. The figure is up from less than 7.7 percent between 2013 and 2020, according to the Intercontinental Exchange, a data and technology firm.

And in high-risk areas like New Orleans, property insurance can make up as much as 25 percent of the average mortgage holder’s overall monthly housing payment. “That’s something we also see beyond traditional hurricane zones,” said Andy Walden, head of mortgage and housing market research at Intercontinental Exchange, who added that insurance accounts for more than 15 percent of monthly housing payments in areas like Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Okla., and Wichita, Kan.

It’s impossible to predict how much higher premiums will go from here. But we do know that State Farm asked California state regulators to urgently approve a 22 percent average rate increase after the devastating Palisades and Eaton wildfires in Los Angeles.

Nearly every state requires insurers to seek regulatory approval before a rate increase. Regulators are tasked with striking a balance between protecting consumers from unwarranted price hikes and ushering them when needed to keep insurers financially stable.

Further hikes won’t be isolated to places like California either. Insurers continue to request large increases from their regulators in a wide variety of markets, but also on individual homes. That’s happening, at least in part, because insurers continue to update their risk models, which may capture more reasons — sometimes from a drone hovering above — to hike rates on an individual property.

One home in Brentwood, Calif., for example, saw its proposed premium rise nearly 700 percent — to $6,170 from about $825 — as its fire risk was recalculated.

“It is an extreme outlier but it shows or gives an illustration of how much premiums, in theory, could go up,” said Tim Zawacki, a principal research analyst covering the insurance industry for S&P Global Market Intelligence. “The important thing about the maximum percentage change is that the affected policyholders may see significantly lesser increases due to the application of discounts and rate caps.”

Many insurers rely on models built by outside vendors that crunch data to assess risk. These models will spit out a risk score — for wildfires, for example — that takes into account things like what type of vegetation is present in the area, what the degree of the land’s slope is and how difficult it might be to gain access to the area and stamp out a fire.

But mitigating those risks — adding a defensible space around the home, for example, or ember-safe attic vents — could make homeowners eligible for discounts on premiums.

Changes and modifications to reduce risk aren’t cost free, of course — vent covers may be negligible, but a new roof and siding may well be prohibitive for many households.

Mitigation measures for hazards in different parts of the country can reduce premiums 5 to 10 percent, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Of course, when an entire community is taking mitigation seriously, these efforts become even more effective — and can result in more discounts. Living in what the National Fire Protection Association deems a “Firewise USA” community can help, for example.

In California, a law requires insurers to provide homeowners with their property’s wildfire risk score when they apply for a policy and to provide a discount if they take steps to reduce their risk.

More broadly speaking, homeowners are resorting to the usual tactics, such as raising their deductible or reducing coverage on other structures, such as garages, as well as on their home’s contents and personal property.

In 2024, The New York Times created an interactive map that shows how home insurance costs compare by county, how much they’ve increased in recent years and how those costs stack up against those for areas with similar risk levels.

But premiums can vary greatly from one neighborhood to the next, or even between two homes just half a mile from one another, insurance agents said. An older home in a “high brush” area may have far steeper premiums than a newly constructed structure in a “moderate brush” area.

And certain homes may be considered uninsurable unless certain improvements are made, some agents said, such as replacing an old roof within a certain time period. The roof may even be excluded from the policy until that happens.

That’s why if you’re seriously considering buying a home it’s wise to get home insurance quotes as early in the process as possible. That information can then be used as a negotiating tactic.

“If you find the home insurance is going to be three times more than expected, you want to know when you still have a chance to get out of the transaction,” said Mark Maimon, a branch manager at NJ Lenders who is based in Los Angeles. He said he has seen contingency clauses hinged upon insurance availability, which enable home buyers to rescind their offers if they can’t get adequate insurance.

The insurance market has become distorted for many reasons. Our colleagues’ investigation in 2024 found that some insurers were charging people, especially in the middle of the country and parts of the Southeast, far more than other homeowners with similar levels of risk, for example.

The level of regulation is often a factor. In states that keep tighter controls on what insurers can charge, like California, premiums tend to be priced below the actual risk from fires, storms and other disasters. But after a state like that experiences a big catastrophe, insurers tend to raise rates in states with weaker controls, like Oklahoma, researchers found.

There are other reasons for the disparities. Insurance can be pricier in smaller, more rural states because there are fewer households to share the risk, and some states require higher levels of coverage. Reinsurance, which essentially insures the insurers to make sure they can cover losses, has risen more in recent years.

Finally, states that have backstop coverage — for homeowners unable to purchase insurance in the private insurance market — can help pull down private insurance rates.

Repositories of such information exist, but some may be easier to gain access to than others. The LexisNexis C.L.U.E. Property report collects up to seven years of property insurance claims filed (excluding flood-related ones), and may include details like the date and the causes of the loss, as well as the amount the insurer paid.

But these reports are generally accessible only by individuals who want to pull their own reports (frequent claimants may pay higher premiums) or by insurers, who, for underwriting purposes, can pull reports on a specific person and property. You could ask a property owner or an insurance agent to share the reports.

As for flood claims, FEMA keeps a list of properties that have had repetitive flood claims throughout the history of the National Flood Insurance Program, as well as a full history of all claims.

After your existing policy expires, yes. You may have spent a pile of money on hardening your home against disaster, doing everything short of shrouding your home in indestructible black-box material. None of that matters if an insurer decides it wants to exit the area and unload some risk.

Take California. Many of the largest home insurers there have stopped issuing policies or pulled back in some fashion, in large part because of rising losses from wildfires that have become larger and more frequent. And that was before the latest round of devastating fires that tore through Los Angeles.

Indeed, since 2018, more than 1.9 million home insurance contracts nationwide have not been renewed, our colleagues reported at the end of 2024. In more than 200 counties, the nonrenewal rate has tripled at least.

The Times created an interactive map where you can search for nonrenewal rates by state and then drill down to more specific areas and counties. The map uses data from the Senate Budget Committee on 23 of the 41 insurers from which The Times requested information.

In New York, for example, nonrenewal rates are among the lowest in the country, but nonrenewals on Long Island and in Manhattan have more than doubled since 2018.

There may be some limits in the immediate aftermath of a disaster, but it’s hard to predict what would happen in every state. In California, Ricardo Lara, the insurance commissioner, introduced protections for survivors of the most recent wildfires, including a mandatory one-year moratorium on insurance nonrenewals and cancellations in certain ZIP codes.

Other unlucky policyholders may have been dropped just months before disaster hit.

That’s what happened to many residents of Pacific Palisades, according to The San Francisco Chronicle. The newspaper reported that nearly 70 percent of State Farm property policyholders there were told last summer they would lose their insurance. Many probably turned to California’s backstop, its FAIR plan.

Treat this as a deep thought exercise. Do you truly know how it might feel to carry the weight of losing most or all of what might be your single largest asset?

Where exactly would the money come from if you had to not only rebuild your home, but also cart away the remains of the prior structure before rebuilding? Where would you go while you did all of that? Would you sell the land and move away? How much would you have to give up?

For most homeowners, it probably means a derailed retirement plan or lost savings.

Renters’ policies typically reimburse you for any personal belongings that have been damaged or destroyed by covered perils, after you’ve met a deductible. Those perils are similar to those you would find listed in a homeowner’s policy: They often include wildfires, hurricanes, windstorms, hail and certain water-related damage, but exclude floods and earthquakes (which require separate policies or endorsements, depending on where you live). Ask what a policy might exclude.

Just as with homeowners’ policies, pay close attention to the type of property coverage that is being offered: Replacement value will allow you to buy (or repair) a new couch and television based on what it currently costs, whereas an “actual cash value” policy will pay only the depreciated amount those items are worth now. The second option will save you in premiums, but it will cost you if you need to refurnish your apartment or buy a new wardrobe for your family.

And not all belongings may be covered — jewelry, collectibles or special instruments may require additional policies or coverage.

If your apartment has been damaged and needs to be repaired, or if it has been completely destroyed, these policies also typically include “loss of use” or “additional living expenses.” Loss of use often covers a flat amount, or up to 40 percent of your total coverage amount, which is subject to certain time limits.