Property insurance rates forcing some to sell their homes in Louisiana

The situation New Orleans homeowner Cheron Brylski is facing is not unique in Louisiana. After her previous property insurance carriers left the state, she’s been forced to use Citizens and said now she has no other choice but to sell the home she and her husband, who died 9 years ago, lovingly restored.

“I’m just amazed at the amount of people who share this situation, and I think for the state insurance office to just tell us it will be better in a couple of years, isn’t being realistic,” said Brylski.

Brylski, who owns her own public relations company, has been downsizing her business as she prepares to retire but said the increase in property taxes and insurance has forced her to spend what would be her retirement savings to stay in her home.

“If I had thought that property insurance rates would go up so fast, and so drastically, I would have budgeted for that. But I never saw that rates would double and then increase again,” said Brylski.

She said she’s tried to find another carrier instead of Citizens and Brylski no one is willing to write her policy, even though she owns her home outright and her neighborhood didn’t flood after Katrina. Since she put the for sale sign up in her yard, Brylski said others have shared similar stories.

“You know you get to the point sometimes where you feel like you’re doing this all alone and it’s actually given me a little solace that I’m not in this thing all by myself,” said Brylski.

Brylski said it costs nearly $15,000 to insure her home annually.