Rising risks, resilient homes: Reimagining insurance for communities

Wednesday, November 5, 2025, 2:30 – 3:30 p.m. EST 
Online only: https://www.brookings.edu/events/rising-risks-resilient-homes/ 

Rising insurance costs are capturing national attention. In 2024, average homeowners’ insurance premiums increased 10.4% following a 12.7% rise in 2023. In Florida, non-renewals surged 280% between 2018 and 2023. Across the country, roughly one in 13 homeowners were uninsured last year, while insurers in high-risk states like Texas denied nearly half of home insurance claims in 2024.     

These trends highlight more than just rising costs. They reveal the limits of current insurance structures and the growing climate risk facing homes and communities nationwide. But the conversation about homeowners’ insurance also opens the door to a broader conversation about risk: where and how we build, how we measure and manage risk, and how innovations can contribute to a viable and effective insurance industry that protects both people and property. 

Join Brookings Metro on November 5 for a discussion with experts who will examine these questions from a national perspective, including Carolyn Kousky, founder of Insurance for Good, and Nancy Watkins, principal at Milliman Financial Risk Management. By linking community resilience with potential cost savings, these experts show how strategic investments in structural innovations, for example, in construction standards and data-driven risk management, can fund further resilience efforts. Drawing on lessons from communities that have faced extreme weather, the conversation will connect practical solutions at the local level with broader considerations, offering a roadmap for building homes and communities that are safer, healthier, and more resilient.