The 30th anniversary of hurricane Andrew: Evolution of the Florida homeowners insurance market

Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Homestead, Florida as a category 5 hurricane on August 24, 1992. This 30‐year anniversary review examines the changes within the Florida and coastal United States homeowners insurance markets. We review market changes specifically related to market concentration, ri...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Risk management and insurance review 2022-09, Vol.25 (3), p.239-270
Main Authors: Carrillo, Gabriel, Telljohann, Dana, Nyce, Charles
Format: Article
Language:eng
Subjects:
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Hurricane Andrew made landfall in Homestead, Florida as a category 5 hurricane on August 24, 1992. This 30‐year anniversary review examines the changes within the Florida and coastal United States homeowners insurance markets. We review market changes specifically related to market concentration, risk pricing, and volatility. We find that most states have become less concentrated since the early 1990s. We also find that risk pricing has changed since Hurricane Andrew with the creation of a new catastrophe market where insurers rely on catastrophe models to help price catastrophe‐prone risks. Finally, we see that most states did not experience much volatility over the 30 years following Hurricane Andrew, with Florida being an exception. This is most likely due to the large population growth, increase in fraudulent claims, and high litigation costs. Overall, Hurricane Andrew changed how the insurance industry viewed catastrophic events and thus changed how they manage, model, and price catastrophe‐prone areas.
ISSN:1098-1616
1540-6296