Anonymous wrote:The irony is that because of the political connections of the owners of the camp in Texas, they successfully lobbied FEMA to have their property removed from the highest risk zone. Probably to lower their insurance costs. It's very good that the system was updated recently to be more realistic about the current risk environment, but obviously worthless if it can be easily manipulated. Just looking at the satellite images it was obvious how risky that site was to flooding.

Anonymous wrote:An AE flood zone means that the area has at least a 1% chance of flooding, based on estimates of past rainfall/streamflow. It doesn't account for any increased risk due to climate change.
If you have a mortgage and your house (the actual structure) is in this zone, flood insurance should have been required as a condition of the mortgage.
Regular homeowners insurance won't cover flooding, you need to buy it separately.

Anonymous wrote:A neighbor a few streets over has a small creek on the back of the property and the flood risk changed. I think on Zillow etc it says 9/10 I didn’t look up FEMA. They have it up for sale and having a hard time selling it (not in DC).

Anonymous wrote:The biggest change is that if a future buyer of your property doesn't pay in cash, then they will have to have flood insurance coverage in addition to regular homeowners.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FEMA revised their maps a few years ago and their methodology expanded the inland flood areas significantly. It was probably a bit too expansive for current day, but brought a lot more people into the flood insurance program.

If you’re newly in AE zone, if you sell your house your buyer will need to purchase flood insurance in order to secure nearly all financing.

I’d probably get flood insurance if I were you. The likelihood of a total loss in your situation is low, so the max NFIP coverage is probably sufficient.

The premiums for these plans are very reasonable and not the horror stories you hear about along the gulf coast or similar areas.

I don’t remember anything about being in a flood zone when we bought or else we wouldn’t have bought it. I guess being in a flood zone without waterfront views is probably going to make our house hard to unload when we eventually move. And now I’m more worried about all of the flood alerts. Sigh.

Anonymous wrote:FEMA revised their maps a few years ago and their methodology expanded the inland flood areas significantly. It was probably a bit too expansive for current day, but brought a lot more people into the flood insurance program.

If you’re newly in AE zone, if you sell your house your buyer will need to purchase flood insurance in order to secure nearly all financing.

I’d probably get flood insurance if I were you. The likelihood of a total loss in your situation is low, so the max NFIP coverage is probably sufficient.

The premiums for these plans are very reasonable and not the horror stories you hear about along the gulf coast or similar areas.

Anonymous wrote:I am next to a creek that has never flooded, but FEMA put my back yard in a flood zone. I am in Arlington County which deemed it a Natural Resource Protection area and means I can never take down a tree (there aren't any) or build on top of it. So it has implications for resale too, but it also means no one can ever build behind my property. I just make sure there are no irreplaceable valuables in my basement.