WAAY 31 Investigates: Rising homeowner's insurance rates are pricing some people out of their homes

Homeowner's insurance is, of course, a must. It is. But insurance rates are on the rise these days, making some people's mortgages unaffordable. Do I pay my insurance this month, or do I feed my kids? Whitley Hardy never imagined she'd be renting a house at this stage of life. She and her husband just built their dream house near Birmingham. 2022 was when it was completed. We lived there for two years. Things changed earlier this year when they got a letter in the mail from their mortgage company. It said, starting next month, your mortgage is going to go up from x amount to y amount. And we're not talking $50, $100. We're talking significant difference, somewhere between $600 and $700. Higher a month. Sure, she called her insurance company with questions, even racked her own brain for a reason. Nothing with my home changed. The square footage didn't change. The land didn't change. I didn't put anything on my property, like a pool, that would make it increase in price. Turns out the rising cost of homeowners insurance is pricing a lot of people out of their homes. One of the biggest reasons, the roof. The roof age is everything in insurance these days. A lot of carriers will not insure a roof at replacement costs that's over 15 years of age. Some will not insure the home if the roof is over 10 years of age. Brock Shelton writes homeowners policies at Randy Jones and Associates in Gundersville, says insurance companies are clamping down hard on roofs right now, dropping long time customers when their roofs reach a certain age, making policies unaffordable if they do renew them with major coverage limits. Instead of replacing it at full replacement cost, they'll replace it at an actual cash value. So they'll only give you a depreciation amount of the roof and not what it would take, Chris, to fully replace it. One of the biggest reasons for this roof clamp down, Shelton says, unethical roofing companies. Usually companies from out of state who swarm into town after a storm and go door to door. Hey, I can see you got some pretty serious roof damage out here. My company can actually help you. Convincing people they need a new roof, even if they don't, just so their company can get the business. Problem is, all those unnecessary claims combined with inflation. The rise of steel is up 55%. The rise of lumber is up 35%. Labor costs are up 15 to 16%. Means insurance companies are losing money on most claims they write. We are getting to the point where it's becoming unaffordable for the average person to afford their insurance. With the insurance being higher, their purchasing power is lower than it used to be. Mortgage broker Josh Barnes says it's not just homeowners feeling that pinch, it's hurting home buyers too. He says higher insurance premiums plus rising property taxes force him to turn some qualified buyers away. Oh yeah, we have, we have. We've had to say, hey, that is just too much. You know, you're not gonna be able to afford that right now. So maybe they'll look at a lower amount or say, hey, I'm gonna hold off, you know, a year, see what happens. Of course, Whitley Hardy hopes her family will again one day live in a house they own. I know that personally, God's gonna take care of me and my family. You know, we believe that everything happens in his divine timing. For now, she's just grateful they have a roof over their heads. Well, insurance experts say some companies are now raising deductibles for certain damage to a percentage rather than a flat rate. And of course, that has a lot of folks on edge about how much their insurance policies could go up as well. I will have this story a little bit later this morning on our website, waytv.com, with a little bit more information about how insurance companies pay attention to your roof condition. You don't wanna miss that. That'll be on waytv.com.