Only about 4% of homeowners nationwide have flood insurance, but the lack of coverage is most costly for Connecticut residents.
A recent study by the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) found Connecticut homeowners are paying the most for flood repair costs compared to others across the nation, over the years.
The report shows Connecticut homeowners can often expect to pay an average of more than $283,000 in repairs over the course of a 30-year mortgage on homes with prior flood damage.
Connecticut sellers aren’t required to disclose whether a home has suffered previous flooding or flood damage, or whether insurance is mandatory on the property, according to Joel Scata, an attorney for the NRDC.
Connecticut’s flood reporting laws are insufficient, according to Scata.
“Connecticut on our score chart, gets a D in comparison to other states,” Scata said. “In Connecticut, the home seller is really only required to disclose whether a property is in a flood plain.”
The lack of flood reporting protections hurts Connecticut homebuyers who unknowingly purchase homes with previous flood damage, according to Scata.
“Basically they just have to say whether the home is in a flood hazard area,” Scata said. “That means home buyers in Connecticut could be purchasing properties that have flooded before and are not learning about that.”
Connecticut’s flood damage costs are higher than many states since it’s along the shoreline.
New Haven County has the highest annual flooding repair costs in the state.
“You could be looking at almost buying a second home with some of those damage costs that you could be accruing,” Scata said. “That really underscores how important it is that people are informed about their flood risk when they're about to make one of the biggest purchases of their life.”
Connecticut also has the highest number of homes in the country that are affected by repeated flooding. The report found more than 2% of all single-family homes in Connecticut have previously flooded since 2010.
Some Connecticut communities most prone to flooding are looking into other ways to mitigate storm damage.
The city of Hartford recently collaborated with the local water and sewer authority, and the Connecticut Department of Transportation announced a plan to install a cofferdam system on Route 113 in Stratford.
The NRDC said it would be ideal for states to require disclosure when a property was flooded and required repairs, and is in a flood plain. The council said if flood insurance is mandatory, states should also inform homebuyers.
The report used catastrophe modeling software to estimate the average annual loss for homes, along with some Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) data, Larry Baeder, a data scientist who worked on the report, said
Baeder didn’t anticipate Connecticut having such high average flood repair costs.
“For some people, maybe $50,000 is significant, maybe $100,000, but the values in Connecticut being as high as they were would be surprising,” Baeder said.
