Mapping the Home Insurance Crisis: A Closer Look at North Carolina

North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey has called for abolishing the Federal Insurance Office. Is it because the data that FIO released makes him look bad?

Throughout the United States, homeowners and housing providers are struggling to afford or keep insurance, as companies hike rates or reduce coverage amid worsening climate chaos. Even before the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office (FIO) released data that made it possible to map the contours of the nationwide home insurance crisis, North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey (R) was calling for FIO to be eliminated.

Now, this data reveals troubling patterns across the state, including warning signs that private insurers were pulling back in western North Carolina long before Hurricane Helene hit in the fall of 2024. Causey’s strident criticism of FIO appears particularly out of touch with his state’s exposure to fossil fuel-driven climate damages.

Coastal North Carolina has long been vulnerable to flooding and hurricanes. The impact of 2018’s Hurricane Florence, in particular, can be seen in the claim frequency rates (number of paid claims in a reporting year divided by the number of policies in force at the end of the reporting year) and paid loss ratios (the relationship between an insurer’s payouts for claims and the premiums it collects, expressed as a percentage) in affected areas that year.

But it’s not just coastal North Carolina that’s at risk. Western North Carolina, once viewed as a “climate haven,” was ravaged in 2024 by Hurricane Helene and a few months later by wildfires. Data on nonrenewals in that region suggest that warning signs were present in insurance data years earlier.

The contradiction between the state’s vulnerability and Mike Causey’s head-in-the-sand approach to climate change came to a head last year when he was challenged by then-North Carolina state senator Natasha Marcus (D-41) in the state insurance commissioner election. In the debate, Marcus highlighted “how glaringly obvious it is that climate change is real” and warned that “more storms like Helene are coming and every region of our state is at risk.” This reality is visible in data on average claim amounts, which are rising throughout most of the state.

Marcus criticized Causey and his party for their refusal to admit the role of climate change, and for weak oversight of rising premiums. Causey approved homeowners insurance rate hikes in 2018 (statewide average increase of 4.8%), 2019 (4%), 2021 (7.9%), and 2025 (7.5%), with another 7.5% increase coming up in 2026. 

In each instance, Causey negotiated an increase that was lower than what the North Carolina Rate Bureau requested. Still, his predecessor, Wayne Goodwin (D), approved just one rate hike (7% in 2012) while he was in office from 2008 to 2016, and he rejected the rate bureau’s 2014 request. The statewide average increases conceal much higher rate hikes in certain areas, as evidenced by the map below. What’s more, Causey has defended “consent to rate” legislation, which enables insurers to charge consumers more than the state-approved maximum.

In the face of skyrocketing premiums, more and more homeowners throughout the United States are having trouble affording home insurance. There has been a discernible increase in cancellation rates due to nonpayment, with millions of households nationwide opting to go without coverage—or being forced to do so out of economic necessity. This is a major issue in North Carolina, as the map below shows.

There has also been an increase in cancellation rates due to factors other than nonpayment, a somewhat murky category of cancellations initiated by insurers for various reasons, including alleged fraud. Given insurance companies’ increased use of invasive aerial imaging, these cancellations merit greater investigation.

Last year, Marcus questioned whether Causey is compromised by the fact that, according to a website paid for by Friends of Natasha Marcus, he has accepted more than a quarter-million dollars in campaign cash from the insurance industry alone.

Campaign finance data also shows Causey accepted funds from the North Carolina Home Builders Association (NCHBA). While Causey’s position is unclear, the NCHBA lobbied for House Bill 488 which, after passage in 2023, undermined efforts to adapt residential building codes to emerging climate risks and reduced funding available for climate resilience. 

Without such investments, homeowners and renters across the state will be more vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, mudslides, and higher insurance premiums. Causey narrowly defeated Marcus in the November 2024 election.

See How the Crisis Has Unfolded at the National Scale

Below, you can explore an interactive map depicting how the seven metrics explored above have changed over time across the United States. Be sure to check out the accompanying report.