When Coastal Property Becomes Uninsurable

State Farm pulled out of California. Multiple carriers have exited Florida. Coastal property in Louisiana is increasingly uninsurable at rates that don't trigger mortgage default.

This is not a future risk story. It's happening now.

The insurance industry is not known for idealism. Actuaries don't advocate for solutions because they're hopeful. They advocate because they're calculating risk, and right now the risk math on coastal property is breaking down in ways that threaten the entire business model of property insurance.

Here's what's happening:

→ When insurance becomes unavailable, mortgages become uninsurable. When mortgages become uninsurable, property values collapse. When property values collapse, the tax base that funds coastal infrastructure and emergency services deteriorates. The feedback loop accelerates.

→ State-backed insurers of last resort — government backstops — are absorbing the risk the private market won't take. That transfers the problem to taxpayers without solving it.

→ The actual risk isn't going away. Regulatory intervention (premium caps, coverage mandates) can slow the market's response, but it can't change the underlying physics.

Insurance executives paying attention to SeaNet aren't doing so out of generosity or climate commitment. They're doing it because the math of their industry requires a viable physical solution.

A credible sea level response — one that reduces projected rise by even 3-5 feet over 50 years — changes every actuarial model on every coastal property in the world. It changes the economics of insuring Miami, New Orleans, Jacksonville, Tampa, and Houston.

SeaNet doesn't compete with insurance as an industry. It offers the one thing insurance markets can't create for themselves: a reason to believe the underlying risk is solvable.

If you work in insurance, real estate finance, or coastal property development — this conversation is worth having.