Episode 376: The Insurance Crisis Squeezing Homeownership—A Risk the Fed Can't Control

Home insurance premiums have surged 46.8% since 2020, creating a structural barrier to homeownership that exists completely outside the Fed's control. With disasters costing $107 billion globally in 2025 and private insurers like State Farm exiting markets entirely, state-run programs are absorbing catastrophic exposure—California's FAIR Plan liability jumped 424% since 2020. The shutdown of a 45-year federal disaster database in May 2025 has further destabilized how risk gets priced. As insurance costs rise faster than inflation while mortgage rates stay above 6%, entire ZIP codes are being priced out of the housing market. Meanwhile, Micron reports earnings Wednesday amid intensifying HBM competition, but the real story is how two diverging systems—monetary policy and climate risk—are creating affordability pressure no rate cut can solve. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.