New data gathering tool may help bring insurance carriers back to Louisiana
NEW ORLEANS — In early 2023 the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans (HBAGNO) Board of Directors approved a “Resilient Roofing” resolution (R. 01-2023) designed to enhance long-term housing resiliency and attract property insurance carriers to Coastal Louisiana.
Over the past several years the state has experienced numerous storms, including Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida, which have impacted Louisiana’s coast and damaged several hundred thousand Louisiana homes, costing billions of dollars of losses, with roof failure being by far the most common cause of damage.
As a result, the insurance industry has sustained crippling losses, forcing many companies into bankruptcy, and very few financially viable insurance carriers remain to insure Louisiana’s homes. Consequently, the cost of homeowners insurance in Louisiana has become unaffordable for many Louisiana families, particularly in the hurricane wind zones of coastal Louisiana.
With the support of the HBAGNO, Louisiana recently adopted the 2021 IRC Code, which requires more rigorous roof construction standards, secondary leak protection, and sealed roof decks, for the first time in Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code history. These new construction codes went into effect on January 1, 2023 and represent the most resilient code requirements on the Gulf Coast.
According to Mark Joiner, executive director of the Louisiana State Uniform Construction Code Council, “Any time you adopt a new code it raises costs. But the flip side of that is if you are building a more resilient, more energy-efficient home, then your insurance rates are much lower.”
Since the 2023 approval of the “Resilient Roofing” resolution, the HBAGNO Board of Directors has continued its commitment to promoting adoption of inspections to create a public database of code compliant structures. They also host public forums to both explain the new code changes and gather input from the construction industry. Supporting HBAGNO’s efforts is FEMA, who has created a 2024 Building Code Adoption Tracking Fact Sheet, to help homeowners and builders understand what’s at stake in terms of ensuring homeowners can get affordable insurance.
The regional FEMA fact sheets show an annual, high-level overview of the percent of communities adopting hazard-resistant building codes. Louisiana is part of FEMA’s Region 6 and has the highest percentage of tracking at 98.4% compared to other states within its area. Those states include Texas (30.3%), Arkansas (40.6%), Oklahoma (0.5%) and New Mexico (63.1%). The percentages are based upon jurisdictions within each state which are at high risk for one or more hazard types (Region 6’s hazards are flood, damaging wind, hurricane wind, tornado, and seismic).
“With this new tracking, we can continue the hard work of finding solutions that will persuade insurance carriers to come back to Louisiana,” said Dan Mills, CEO of the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans. “As builders provide more resilient roofing, we hope to provide a long-term solution to our insurance needs in the face of ever-increasing coastal threats.”
To see the new Region 6 FEMA Fact Sheet or for general information about the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans, visit www.hbagno.org or call 504-837-2700.
ABOUT THE HBAGNO:
Founded in 1941, the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans (HBAGNO) provides members with continuing education, events for networking opportunities and advocacy to protect the home building industry. The HBA is a non-profit professional organization serving nearly 1,000 builders and associate members encompassing seven parishes throughout Louisiana, including Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. John the Baptist, St. James, St. Charles, Plaquemines, and Orleans. For more than 80 years the Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans has served as the voice of the residential housing industry across the metro area.
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