Over a Quarter of US Homes Face ‘Severe or Extreme’ Climate Risk

About 26.1 percent of U.S. homes, valued at around $12.7 trillion, are at “severe or extreme” climate risk from fires, hurricanes, or floods, according to the Realtor.com® 2025 Housing and Climate Risk report.

As Snejana Farberov explains, the report reflects a growing threat, even in areas previously considered immune to climate disasters, leading to soaring home insurance rates. “The most at-risk metros—predominantly clustered in the South—face the highest insurance costs, as reflected in the premium-to-market value ratio, which measures how much a homeowner is paying in insurance premiums each year relative to the market value of their property.”

Of the three major disasters, hurricanes threaten the most U.S. homes, with 18.3 percent of American homes at risk. The premium-to-market value ratio of most insurance policies is 1.25 percent, but in Miami, which carries the heaviest homeowners insurance burden among large U.S. metros, that rate is 3.7 percent. “In other words, a family owning a home with the median market value of $614,000 would be on the hook for $22,718 in insurance premiums every year under an HO-3 home insurance policy—the most common type of single-family homeowners insurance policy in the U.S.” In addition to Miami, four other of the top 10 most insurance-burdened cities are in Florida.

Of homes that face severe or extreme wildfire risk — 5.6 percent of the U.S. housing stock — 40 percent are in California, where some insurance companies are pulling out altogether.