The soaring cost of home insurance in Louisiana threatens to drive residents out of the state, depress property values and disrupt local services by shrinking municipal tax revenue, a new financial analysis says.
Moody’s Investors Service projected in a report Monday that Louisiana will experience a “severe” loss of working-age residents due to long-term demographic trends and the “state’s susceptibility to natural disasters.”
“Expensive insurance has the potential to contribute to out-migration,” Moody’s wrote.
The seven-page report portrays Louisiana as the state facing the worst threat from increasing costs of property insurance and flood insurance, which are driven in part by climate change fueling stronger storms, wildfires and floods.
