Why do I need flood insurance when it hasn’t flooded in 1,000 years?
There’s a common misconception floating around about flood insurance. Many homebuyers are under the impression that flood insurance is only necessary for properties near the water or at a low sea level with a recent history of floods. Federal law only requires flood insurance in high-risk areas, but lenders often require it even in moderate and low-risk areas. We’re going to explain why flood insurance is a necessary investment for every homeowner.
Waging your residence on the “chance” that it won’t flood in the lifetime of the loan is riskier than you may think. According to the Information Insurance Institute, “90 percent of all natural disasters in the U.S. involve some type of flooding[…]and 20 percent of all flood claims are filed in low to moderate flood risk areas.” You don’t want to chance your place of shelter on the weather. Home damage from floods comes in many forms, including mudslides, water from storm/hurricane damage, broken water mains, faulty drainage systems and snow melt.If there is a flooding incident in your home, you want to guarantee you have funds to bring your home back to its pre-flood condition, and neither Federal Disaster Aid nor homeowner’s insurance is going to cover it. Flood insurance is the only policy that will cover everything you need to get your life back on track post-flood without emptying your bank account. Every policy is different, but flood insurance generally covers appliances, flooring, essential home systems like A/C, personal property and even art.It doesn’t matter if the last flood was a week ago or a thousand years ago, flood insurance is for every homeowner that wants to protect their investment and their home.
A homestead exemption is one of the many benefits of owning a home, but what happens when you sell your home and move to a new place as your primary residence? Homestead Portability comes in.Homestead Exemption & Portability
When you declare a home as your primary residence, you are eligible for a homestead tax exemption in most states. While it varies state by state, generally, declaring your primary residence as your homestead means you only pay property taxes on a value lower than the appraised value of your home and your home is protected from creditors in the event of a spouse death or bankruptcy. Some states automatically apply homestead exemption to your primary residence, while others require that you file for it.When you sell your current home or change primary residences, you are eligible to transfer your benefit (accrued property tax savings) from one property to another. You must check your state’s regulations for exact values, but this allows you to lower the assessed value on your new residence, in most cases.Florida Homestead Portability
In 1992, Florida enacted the “Save Our Homes” (SOH) Constitutional Amendment that limits the annual increase in assessed property value to no more than 3% or the Consumer Price Index for the previous year.According to the Florida Department of Revenue, “If you are moving from a previous Florida homestead to a new homestead in Florida, you may be able to transfer, or “port,” all or part of your homestead assessment difference. If you are eligible, portability allows most Florida homestead owners to transfer their SOH benefit from their old homestead to a new homestead, lowering the tax assessment and, consequently, the taxes for the new homestead.
