Wanna Save Money? Climate-Proof Your Home

Short Wave

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🗓️ 11 June 2025

⏱️ 14 minutes

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Summary

Homeowners' insurance isn't just getting more expensive ... it's also getting harder to secure in the first place. Across the country, an increase in climate-related disasters like heat waves, wildfires and hurricanes is creating challenges for both insurers and their customers. One successful strategy taking hold in Alabama and other states: Climate-proofing houses — and incentivizing it with insurance discounts.

Still, not all states or homeowners face similar risks. And insurers aren't legally required to take climate-proofing into account when assessing the insurability of a home. That's why states are experimenting with different programs — and insurance legislation — to find a solution.

This episode is part of NPR's Climate Solutions Week: a series of stories covering real world solutions for building, and living, on a hotter planet.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, it's Ian from How to Do Everything. On our show, we attempt to answer your how
0:05.1	to questions. We don't know how to do anything. So we call experts. Last season, both Tom Hanks and
0:11.6	Martha Stewart stopped by to help. Our next season is launching in just a few months. So get us your
0:16.3	questions now by emailing how to at npr.org or calling 1-800-424-2935.
0:24.4	You're listening to Shortwave from NPR.
0:29.7	This week at NPR, we're covering climate solutions.
0:32.8	And today we're starting with a solution that at first glance seems pretty basic.
0:36.9	It's a roof, a roof that doesn't
0:38.9	really look any different from any other one you'd see on a standard house. And here today, to explain
0:43.8	why it's special is Lauren Summer from NPR's Climate Desk and Stephen Besaha from the Gulf
0:48.8	State's newsroom. Hey, hi. Hey, good to be with you. Okay, so Stephen tell me, like, what can this roof do?
0:55.0	So the example roof we're going to use is just a short drive from the Gulf Coast in Alabama.
1:00.2	I met the owner of the house, Ron Watson, and he was pretty psyched about replacing his old roof.
1:05.5	Yeah, I've been up there with a bucket of tar covering large patches where leaks had popped up. Beyond just being more
1:12.6	functional, this roof is also saving Ron money. It reduces the cost of his insurance premium.
1:19.5	And premiums are going up around the country. That's a big incentive. I mean, homeowners insurance
1:25.6	now has been through the roof because of the storms we've had through here.
1:30.5	Yeah, I've heard homeowners insurance is getting, like, more expensive.
1:33.7	It's also harder to get across the country.
1:36.2	So how will this roof save him on his insurance?
1:40.2	So, you know, the Gulf gets a lot of hurricanes.
1:42.8	We're heading into hurricane season right now.
	...

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