Insurance markets differ in important ways from state to state, and North Carolina’s stands out for two reasons. First, insurers responded to an exceptionally catastrophic storm in 2024—Hurricane Helene. The Tar Heel State bore $60 billion of the hurricane’s $80 billion in damages. Second, North Carolina is the only state that continues to promulgate insurance rates using its own statistical rate bureau. This Real Solutions analysis explains the dynamics of the state’s homeowners’ insurance market and presents solutions to strengthen it, advancing the twin objectives of policyholder protection and insurer solvency.
The Big Storm
The loss of life from Hurricane Helene was a human tragedy of vast proportions. The storm, which also struck Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee, took 250 lives—107 in North Carolina alone. The extent of property damage was remarkably high as well, at $5,394 per resident (or 9 percent of the state’s $662 billion gross domestic product). That’s a huge burden for North Carolina, where the median family income sits below the national average at $69,904.
The average cost of homeowners’ insurance in the state is $2,087, which represents 3.3 percent of North Carolinians’ median family income. With the addition of automobile insurance, insurance payments can be burdensome. Only $6.3 billion in losses from Hurricane Helene were covered by insurance, representing approximately 10 percent of total property loss. (Flood insurance is not included in standard homeowners’ insurance policies.)
