This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Florida resident and former baseball player Danny Collins, whose mortgage on a $400,000, four-bedroom home jumped $1,000 per month with no warning after FEMA redrew its flood zone maps, placing his home in a flood zone.
Rent around here now is crazy and in looking for a house we were mostly concerned about the monthly rate. Our mortgage payment was initially $2,000. It was in our budget and we were thrilled to be homeowners. redid all the flood mapsI was surprised because we're just east of US-1 and that's a good three miles from the ocean, so flooding wasn't a concern of mine.
I ended up shopping for insurance companies and got it back down to $2,776. We paid one month of $3,100 before getting it back down. I didn't really plan for this. We were budgeting for a fixed rate of what we thought our mortgage was going to be. I'm fortunate that my wife and I do well enough to be able to cover it but that's an over $700 a month difference. It's almost an $8,000 per year increase in fees, which makes a big difference. It was really frustrating because it's not ever talked about. These are theI've got friends and family who can't handle it.