The Federal Insurance Office at the U.S. Department of the Treasury hosted a roundtable discussion focused on opportunities to address the cost and availability of homeowners insurance. The roundtable included representatives from various sectors, including insurers, reinsurers, state regulators, resilience and consumer groups, and academics. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) was represented by Austin Perez, senior policy representative for insurance issues. NAR highlighted a critical issue — home buyers are increasingly encountering insurance issues as a last-minute surprise during or after real estate transactions. Learning about the true insurance costs too late can cause buyers to walk away from the closing table or experience buyer’s remorse afterward, if they don’t know to expect double-digit annual rate increases in the future. Specific examples of insurance cost and availability issues were provided based on a member survey reporting from around the country. Read more here.
Source: NAR; 5/9/2025