Nearly Half of Homeowners Don’t Carry Supplemental Home Insurance Coverage

Reasons for Not Getting Supplemental Home Insurance Coverage

We surveyed homeowners about their preparedness for natural disasters. More than half of homeowners (52%) said they were extremely, very, or somewhat concerned about natural disasters. Only 33% felt their household was extremely or very prepared to weather natural disasters. 

One way to prepare for natural disasters is to make sure you have the right home insurance coverage. Of those who did not get supplemental home insurance coverage, the reasons were varied. 

The top three most common reasons people reported as to why they don't carry supplemental coverage: 

• Perceived Low Risk (49%): Almost half assume their home's location makes disaster coverage unnecessary.
• High Costs (42%): The increased cost of standard home insurance policies prevents them from expanding their protection to include supplemental coverage.
• Lack of Awareness/Confusion (19%): Homeowners struggle to identify which perils require standalone riders or policies.

Several of these reasons may lead to errors and gaps in coverage if there is, for example, an underestimation of risk, or a lack of knowledge about what coverage includes. For example, the survey also uncovered that 35% of homeowners believe their standard policy covers floods and earthquakes. 

The Expanding Flood Threat Beyond Historical Flood Zones

Flood policies were the most commonly owned in our survey, with 22% of respondents saying they had supplemental flood insurance. However, that leaves 78% of people without flood policies. 

Flooding is a good example of a potential coverage gap due to perceived low risk. The conviction that one lives in a "low risk" area is, unfortunately, rooted in outdated assumptions. Federal and independent climatological data show that flood boundaries are shifting dramatically:

• Flooding Isn't Happening Where We Expect: Between 1978 and 2021, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) paid $4 billion in flood claims outside designated Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHAs)—nearly double the $2.3 billion paid for major river overflows in those same zones.^[1]

• Maps Are Outdated: Traditional Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) flood maps rely heavily on historical data, but the world is changing faster than these maps can keep up. For example, during Hurricane Harvey, approximately three-quarters of flooded structures in Houston were located entirely outside FEMA’s 100-year flood zones.  

• Extreme Weather Is Getting Worse: For every 1°C increase in atmospheric temperatures, air retains roughly 7% more moisture. In the U.S., nine of the top ten years for extreme single-day rainfall have occurred since 1995, turning moderate summer storms into localized flash floods across Appalachia, the Midwest, and the Northeast.^[3]

Essentially, making decisions on where you buy a home or whether or not you insure it with supplemental coverage based on historical data may not be enough. 

David Seider, CCO of The Zebra and an experienced insurance leader, offers this advice: "Flood insurance will continue to grow in importance, especially outside of coastal and traditionally flood-prone areas. More and more flooding is happening in 'non-traditional' parts of the country, and flood insurance will become a bigger part of the public consciousness."

Supplemental Coverage After Natural Disasters

The survey also asked homeowners if they had experienced significant damage to their home after severe weather or a natural disaster. Of those that had, these were the causes. 

Hail and thunderstorms were the most common causes, and damage from these perils is usually covered by a standard home insurance policy. However, the next most commonly experienced perils, hurricanes and flooding, are not covered by standard policies. 

Of those who reported significant damages, 64% said their damages were covered by their standard home insurance policy, and 10% said their damages were covered by a supplemental policy. 

Methodology

The Zebra partnered with Savanta, an independent agency, to conduct an original survey which is based on online responses from 2,500 US home owners that was conducted in July 2026. The data from 2,500 consumers has been weighted to the most recent Census to ensure it is representative of US consumers who own homes.