Beachfront properties in New Jersey typically sell for much more than the Federal Flood Insurance limits. So, no, many aren't fully covered even if they paid for insurance. As to how wise it was to build expensive homes that close to the ocean -- I've asked that question for years. This is not the first time that the NJ barrier islands and low-lying parts of the mainland have been flooded by a hurricane. Residents were lulled into a false sense of security by the lack of any really bad hurricanes for the last few decades.
Beachfront properties in New Jersey typically sell for much more than the Federal Flood Insurance limits. So, no, many aren’t fully covered even if they paid for insurance.
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For beachfront properties, much (and, frequently, most) of the selling price is for the LOCATION of the property. I’ve seen real crappy, cheaply built properties near to the ocean or gulf sell for many times what it would cost to completely raze and rebuild.
Again, let’s not subsidize those who chose to avoid the cost of paying for flood insurance—and, instead, decided to gamble that they’d never be flooded or, if they were flooded, we non ocean-front taxpayers would pay for their new replacement building.
Let these two blue states work out how they’re going to handle this.