18% of U.S. insured property exposure is exposed to Atlantic and Gulf hurricanes

Independent catastrophe risk management and modelling firm Karen Clark & Company (KCC) has published an interesting report looking at U.S. insured property exposures using up to date exposure data in their RiskInsight platform for catastrophe risk management. The report shows that insured building values in the U.S. now totals over $40 trillion, including residential, commercial and industrial structures. Add in contents and time elements and you can double that figure to over $80 trillion.

Of the $80 trillion insured property exposure, including contents and time elements, as much as $15 trillion is directly exposed to Atlantic and Gulf coast hurricane risk and other coastal hazards such as storm surge, according to the report. The states leading the way with exposure to hurricanes and coastal hazards are New York, Florida and Texas.

Overall the states with the highest insured property exposures are California, followed by New York and Texas. The top ten U.S. states account for over 50% of the total exposure nation-wide. Five U.S. counties have over $1 trillion of exposure, with Los Angeles top and New York second.

Of the hurricane exposed states, New York has $4.938 trillion of coastal property exposure, Florida $3.305 trillion, Texas $1.446 trillion, Massachusetts $1.152 trillion and New Jersey $1.109 trillion.

This timely report is a good reminder of just how large the values exposed to hurricane and other property catastrophe risks are in the U.S. and shows the need for dilligent risk management and risk transfer. The figures for California demonstrate just how large the exposure to earthquake damage is as well.

You can download a copy of the report, titled 2012 Insured Property Values in the US, from the Karen Clark & Company website.