Over 20% of U.S. Properties at Risk for Flood Not in Designated Flood Zones

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An estimated 23 percent of residential and commercial properties in the U.S. are at High or Moderate risk of flooding, based on CoreLogic proprietary flood analysis, but are outside of designated Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA) as identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), according to new data analysis from CoreLogic.

Property owners living within SFHA zones must have flood insurance if there is a federally insured mortgage, while those living outside SFHA zones are not required to have flood insurance. Many property owners choose not to carry flood insurance if it is not required even though their property may still be at risk of flood.

This aerial image shows flooded areas of North Baton Rouge, La., Saturday, Aug. 13, 2016. Louisiana (Patrick Dennis/The Advocate via AP)

Nationally, more than 29 million properties (29,437,151), or 23 percent, are outside a designated SFHA despite being at High or Moderate risk of flooding, according to CoreLogic analysis. At the state level:

Florida has the highest number of properties in this category at 5,055,821, or 54 percent of total properties.
Texas has 3,292,082 properties, or 31 percent, and California has 3,114,462 properties, or 29 percent.
Looking at only the percentage of properties outside an SFHA, which are at High or Moderate risk, Arizona has the highest at 68 percent, followed by Florida at 54 percent and Louisiana at 49 percent.

Table 1 shows the number of properties, nationally and by state, at Extreme, Very High, High and Moderate CoreLogic risk levels, as well as the total number and percentage of properties in the High and Moderate risk levels that are not designated in an SFHA.

Table 1: Properties by Risk Level and SFHA Designation*

In SFHA		Outside SFHA*
State	Total Properties Analyzed	CoreLogic Extreme Risk	CoreLogic Very High Risk	CoreLogic High Risk	CoreLogic Moderate Risk	Total High/Moderate Risk	Percentage of High/Moderate Risk
AK	238,421	852	6,424	19,180	51,824	71,004	30%
AL	2,172,387	20,618	86,351	132,307	161,640	293,947	14%
AR	1,540,384	15,114	67,056	124,909	197,005	321,914	21%
AZ	2,570,456	11,608	62,476	329,250	1,417,734	1,746,984	68%
CA	10,843,791	70,290	279,883	975,557	2,138,905	3,114,462	29%
CO	2,180,540	9,136	31,703	154,403	180,628	335,031	15%
CT	1,320,354	16,242	51,395	101,135	121,313	222,448	17%
DC	200,548	133	1,559	4,494	4,059	8,553	4%
DE	404,214	1,608	25,019	34,595	58,726	93,321	23%
FL	9,323,841	193,569	1,795,261	3,050,409	2,005,412	5,055,821	54%
GA	4,084,232	34,798	131,755	211,215	276,441	487,656	12%
HI	486,793	4,909	50,989	54,298	40,284	94,582	19%
IA	1,463,671	8,468	41,688	94,169	137,843	232,012	16%
ID	716,096	4,290	23,714	58,712	80,705	139,417	19%
IL	5,077,490	33,768	100,974	534,505	761,435	1,295,940	26%
IN	3,276,733	35,545	93,022	276,697	439,237	715,934	22%
KS	1,433,596	12,647	56,539	134,421	237,515	371,936	26%
KY	2,001,576	27,949	66,682	120,389	154,834	275,223	14%
LA	1,892,439	40,190	509,639	367,554	568,459	936,013	49%
MA	2,441,192	22,454	89,225	205,316	286,402	491,718	20%
MD	2,239,344	3,741	47,746	118,871	127,316	246,187	11%
ME	773,798	7,188	26,365	59,577	66,990	126,567	16%
MI	4,706,452	12,782	106,009	361,653	523,670	885,323	19%
MN	2,225,408	9,521	39,550	151,498	220,015	371,513	17%
MO	2,594,742	26,836	66,157	101,302	153,351	254,653	10%
MS	1,202,086	37,838	86,356	136,835	169,124	305,959	25%
MT	462,731	3,385	13,461	35,630	42,398	78,028	17%
NC	4,806,039	45,121	180,524	212,379	298,236	510,615	11%
ND	255,276	1,899	12,137	42,565	59,597	102,162	40%
NE	737,483	6,118	28,083	57,186	92,525	149,711	20%
NH	667,166	4,853	23,915	51,788	54,905	106,693	16%
NJ	3,041,599	16,340	297,858	276,778	407,036	683,814	22%
NM	744,793	3,839	44,158	136,792	137,536	274,328	37%
NV	1,059,856	1,603	33,609	110,157	202,753	312,910	30%
NY	5,730,150	30,814	210,812	439,725	510,830	950,555	17%
OH	5,637,630	37,175	128,475	362,428	508,122	870,550	15%
OK	1,473,454	11,730	37,765	120,272	170,394	290,666	20%
OR	1,587,556	16,906	51,337	122,394	134,141	256,535	16%
PA	5,354,373	38,541	123,567	228,804	286,528	515,332	10%
RI	412,903	6,497	16,230	27,027	37,693	64,720	16%
SC	2,357,149	52,564	157,305	146,916	207,342	354,258	15%
SD	323,506	2,820	10,966	29,949	37,951	67,900	21%
TN	3,154,107	25,168	61,641	124,826	172,688	297,514	9%
TX	10,465,111	127,469	534,330	1,373,439	1,918,643	3,292,082	31%
UT	972,300	1,961	10,012	78,352	125,176	203,528	21%
VA	3,250,576	23,881	98,691	286,193	266,382	552,575	17%
VT	245,025	2,375	7,107	14,758	14,490	29,248	12%
WA	2,712,806	20,209	69,923	143,121	207,013	350,134	13%
WI	2,402,103	14,067	49,028	194,516	254,221	448,737	19%
WV	876,879	23,904	50,009	61,503	70,709	132,212	15%
WY	245,771	1,100	4,409	22,724	25,502	48,226	20%
Total U.S.	126,386,926*	1,182,433	6,198,889	12,613,473	16,823,678	29,437,151	23%

*Properties designated as Low or Very Low risk are included in the total property count, but are not listed separately in Table 1. Properties without an address were not included in the analysis.

Source: CoreLogic

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