The rise of homeownership sans insurance

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Marketplace

News, Business

4.5 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 29 August 2023

⏱️ 13 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For Americans with mortgages, homeowners insurance is a must. But for those who have paid off their homes, it’s optional. Now more and more Americans are choosing to forgo that insurance. We’ll explain what’s behind the trend and dig into the potential risks. Plus, bizarre happenings for fabled sea creatures are making us smile, including a live-action reenactment of Jonah and the Whale. And, Nessie, is that you?

Here’s everything we talked about:

- “Americans Are Dropping Their Home Insurance, Claiming the Odds of Disaster Don’t Justify the Cost” from The Wall Street Journal

- “Student Loans Are Emerging From Deep Freeze, and Borrowers Are Confused” from The Wall Street Journal

- “Spanish Prosecutors Open Inquiry Into Luis Rubiales Over World Cup Kiss” from The New York Times

- “Mother of beleaguered Spanish soccer chief starts hunger strike as calls mount for his resignation” from AP News

- “Biggest Hunt for the Loch Ness Monster in 50 Years Gets Under Way” from Bloomberg

- “Whale watching: What happened when a whale swallowed me whole” from Slate

Join us tomorrow for a deep dive into the economics of recycling plastic and its shortcomings. Do you have recycling hacks? Call us at 508-U-B-SMART or email makemesmart@marketplace.org.

Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're ready, uh, I imagine Jake's ready. Jake you're ready. Oh, there it is. There it is.
0:08.5	Hey, everybody, I'm Kai. Rizzo, welcome back to Make Me Smart, where we make today make sense.
0:12.7	Smith Fields is on the other end of the phone today. Hey Kai, it's great to be here. And thanks
0:17.6	everyone for joining us on this Monday, the 28th of August. How is summer almost over? I know,
0:23.3	right? Crazy. I really can't believe it. It flew this year. Crazy. Uh, yeah, although you know,
0:29.2	my marker obviously is kids back in school and my kids now have been back in school for like
0:33.2	three weeks. So, you know, wow, really? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Three weeks. That whole summer vacation
0:38.2	thing is long gone. Long gone. All right. Anyway, we'll do some news. We'll do some smiles. Uh,
0:43.2	Smith Fields. What is your news item or items of the day? All right. Well, the one I've been thinking
0:48.2	about a lot today ever since I read, uh, the headline in the Wall Street Journal this morning is that
0:53.2	a growing number of homeowners are going without home insurance, which as we watch, uh,
0:59.4	this tropical storm soon to be, it seems hurricane edalia bearing down on Florida is particularly
1:05.4	concerning because home insurance, as we all know, is really the main way of rebuilding if your home
1:12.2	is damaged or destroyed in a hurricane, a flood, a fire without it, you might not have anything.
1:19.0	Maybe if there is a huge event, you'll have FEMA, but FEMA does not replace home insurance for,
1:24.3	I think a lot of people think that that, oh, if there's something that really bad that happens,
1:28.2	FEMA will step in and help me out. And the reality is FEMA gives you not a whole lot of money.
1:32.6	I think it maxes out at like $35,000. So that's not going to get you very far. Um, so without home
1:37.6	insurance, you're going to be in trouble. And, you know, if you have a mortgage, yes, you need
1:42.0	home insurance. But if you've paid off your home, you don't. And home insurance is getting increasingly,
1:47.2	increasingly expensive, which is one reason that a lot of people are citing for, for going
1:52.4	without it, feeling like it's not worth it, or that they, that they literally cannot afford it
	...

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