Horry County, SC: Home-Insurance Distress & Forced-Sale Pressure

DLRadar grades Horry County, South Carolina at 93/100 for home-insurance distress, a severe level that places it #50 of 3,222 counties, among the very highest in the country. As premiums climb and carriers retreat, owners who can no longer afford or obtain coverage turn into motivated sellers — often before any foreclosure filing appears.

Behind the score sit a FEMA hazard score of 95/100; NFIP flood-claim stress of 89/100 over three years; 1 fire federal disaster declaration in three years, each a factor insurers weigh when they raise rates or exit a market.

53 NFIP claims, $1,374,868 paid in three years is the documented loss history behind coverage cost in Horry County.

Because premiums track rebuild cost, a 60/100 construction-distress reading in Horry County feeds straight through to what owners are quoted.

The 93/100 signal is only useful next to the rest: in Horry County it is layered with foreclosure, tax-lien and ownership data so a rising premium and a looming default can be read on the same parcel.

Monthly rebuilds keep Horry County honest: 93/100 reflects the renewal environment carriers are pricing right now.

Wildfire accounts for the bulk of declared events here, so it drives both pricing and withdrawal decisions.

It is the combination -- 95/100 hazard, 89/100 claims -- that makes carrying cost the operative trigger here rather than the loan.

Horry County's 93/100 is the kind of reading that shows up later as inventory: owners absorb one renewal, then list before the next.

One model, every county, refreshed monthly from federal hazard and carrier data, tied back to individual parcels and their liens. The payoff is early contact with insurance-pressured sellers, not late.