2M Research merged FHA’s single-family mortgage insurance portfolio (section 203(b) program assisted mortgages only) with National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) records and flood maps from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) by property in North Carolina and Florida. The results show many FHA-insured mortgages are located in high-risk flood zones (Special Flood Hazard Areas (SFHA)).Even though program regulations require nearly all properties located in such high-risk flood zones to be covered by flood insurance, the data indicate that a substantial share of these loans does not have nor continuously maintain such insurance coverage. However, it should be noted that some of these properties may not require mandatory flood insurance due to property improvements, such as elevation, and could be in compliance with FHA’s regulations without carrying flood insurance. Further, HUD does not regularly gather information about the status of each property’s flood insurance coverage. The analysis was made possible only through a special data sharing agreement with FEMA that allowed HUD to gain access to a single point-in-time dataset of flood insurance policies.

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