Homeowners Insurance Prices Go Up For Those Living On The Coast Friday January 26, 2007 10:19pm   Reporter: Courtney Ward   Posted By: Courtney Ward Should marijuana be legalized for medical use?  Yes  No ___  ABC News 4 Interact  ___    • Signup for eNews Alerts    • ABC News 4 Pulse Poll    • Whats Your Opinion?    • Printable Version    • E-Mail This Story » Watch the eVideo Folly Beach, SC - Great views and right on the water...living on the coast can be a beautiful yet expensive experience...especially with homeowners insurance prices that can literally eat you out of house and home. Gerald Davis, a retired math teacher, has lived in his Folly Beach home for more than 30 years. "When I bought the house in 1972 it had insurance with it - homeowners and wind-storm and flood insurance...all three different policies," says Davis. But times have changed.  And 34 years later obtaining homeowners insurance on coastal property isn't nearly as easy...or a cheap. "Your big companies won't write it - State Farm, any of those - none of them will write the coverage.  So you have to go to your independent to write that and it's expensive," says LaJuan Kennedy, the broker-in-charge at Folly Beach's Fred P. Holland Realty. How expensive?  Kennedy says try $5,000 to $6,000.  She believes it's unfair that big insurance companies refuse to write beachfront homeowners insurance. "If they write insurance in the state of South Carolina, why can't they write they coast?  Are they discriminating against us?," asks Kennedy. That depends on who you ask.  A State Farm insurance agent says State Farm will not insure coastal properties because in the event of a disaster the pay-out to those few coastal homeowners would be tremendous...forcing the agency to raise the less expensive premiums of homeowners living inland.  Basically, the agent says the company makes more money insuring the many inland homes that it would the fewer coastal ones. Remember Gerald Davis?...it seems that water-front view that drew him to the beach years ago will also be the reason for his leaving. "With my insurance and taxes about $14,000 a year, so that's quite a bit of money.  Of course I hate to leave the beach, but it's one of those things you have to do...I could afford to live here 20 years ago, but I can't afford to live here now." In an effort to help with high insurance costs, Governor Mark Sanford (website - news) wants a private-sector catastrophe fund, personal catastrophe savings accounts, and tax breaks for those who invest in making their property more storm resistant. A House subcommittee will begin hearings next week. » Find More Articles Related To This One Copyright 2007 WCIV, LLC.

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