I attended a seminar hosted by First Horizon - Home Loan Corporation this morning at the Duck Woods Country Club in Kitty Hawk, NC. Topics of discussion were appraisal changes and the insurance impact. Our speaker was Delphine Amrhein with First Horizon Home Loans with special guest Scott Weatherly with Weatherly Insurance, a Nationwide Insurance agency. Also mentioned was Matt Russell with East Coast Appraisals.
For the area in which I live and work, these changes are of interest. Mainly the insurance, or lack of, in the area of Carova, NC. I did not know until this morning that Carova was in a CBRA zone. In 1982 Congress passed the Coastal Barrier Resources Act (CBRA) and the Coastal Barrier Improvement Act in 1990, which defines and establishes a system of protected coastal areas known as the Coastal Barrier Resources System (CBRS).
Carova was never mapped by the government for flood mapping until last year (2005). Since there was never a flood map, all land was considered to be in an "X" flood zone, meaning no flood insurance was required if getting financed. This all changed for Carova December 16, 2005, the date in which Currituck County accepted the new flood maps. There is now alot of areas that will require flood insurance. The County tried everything they could to have the maps changed as not to impact Carova as it did, however, the drop dead date by the US Government was December 16, 2005. Currituck waited until the last minute, which in my opinion was a good thing, just in case the maps could be changed. Had Currituck not accepted the maps, the whole County would be excluded from any type of Federal insurance programs and/or disaster aid.
Now, what does all this mean? People can still buy, build and sell, however, if someone needs financing, it may not be that simple. Any lender that participates in any of the Federal assistance programs such as Fannie Mae, etc., will not be able to help them. They can go to private lending companies such as small banks, foreign banks and independent insurer's. Lloyd's of London was writing flood policies but has ceased writing them as of this time. What will this do for Carova, NC? As with everything, time will tell.
I'm still learning about this and trying to sort it all out. Other than the information I received this morning from First Horizon Home Loans and the understanding that I, personally, came away with, here are the websites I have visited today to get information so far:
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