Flood insurance in Kansas City is something some people might say is a waste of money, but floods are obviously quite common in low lying areas that are surrounded by water. In these areas, especially around Kansas City, not having flood insurance is like playing financial Russian Roulette in the event of a serious storm.
Flood Insurance If You're Not Near Water?
What about homes that are not situated right in front of a water source? Do they still need to be insured against the potential for flooding?
Of course they do. As it turns out, there are many claims for flooding that come from some of the most unlikely areas. It's not just a function of simple flooding that puts your Kansas City home at risk.
First, think about what would happen to your home even if just two or three inches of water covered your floors. How much of your personal belongings touch the floor and how many electrical cords and extension cords do you have throughout your home just an inch or two off the floor, or worse, lying directly on the floor? How many of these things will put your entire home at risk if there was even just a small flood in your home?
Ground water can start to meet the rain water when the ground is saturated. It doesn't take much to start noticing a significant rise in innocuous bodies of waters such as streams and ponds. It doesn't take much for the overly saturated ground to start siphoning off rain water, which in turn creates flooding.
Floods can happen thanks to saturation of the ground just as easily as it can happen when ground water and rain water meet to cause excessive rain runoff which can lead to flooding. No matter where you live, you may very well find that you are suddenly noticing there is an increase in water saturation after heavy rain. Just ask anyone who was in a non-flood plain area in the path of Hurricane Floyd in 1999, or anyone in non-flood prone areas where Hurricane Katrina wrecked havoc.
Every region runs the risk of flood waters these days, even in the Kansas City area. Flood insurance is not expensive and it is a simple way to protect your home in the event of a serious disaster. It takes very little water to do a tremendous amount of damage that can cost you thousands upon thousands of dollars right out of your pocket if you don't have flood insurance. Flood waters can creep up on you quickly and be right at your front door before you know it. One simple flood insurance policy can mean the difference between being financially wiped out and being able to rebuild.
If you have questions about flood insurance, check out the information at the FEMA website about The National Flood Insurance Program.
Selling a Kansas City home? Sellers need to be aware, with real estate prices continuing to tread along the bottom, it's a tough time to sell.
It's even more important not to make some of these dumb mistakes when trying to sell your Kansas City home.
These are just a few of the mistakes you could make when selling a Kansas City home. If you'd like more home selling tips, we have those for you at this site under the "Home Selling Tips" category.
As always, if you have questions, please don't hesitate to contact us or post them using our comment form.
Kansas City home renovations, in general, now exceed the dollar value of expenditures on newly constructed single family homes.
This trend is not only in Kansas City, according to federal estimates, but it is having a profound effect on real estate markets all across the country.
Housing Scenarios
Maybe you can say you fit one of these scenarios.
- You've been reluctant to sell because you don't think you can get what your house is worth…
- Buying a home seems out of reach because it's so difficult to qualify for a mortgage…
- You've decided it may be smarter to improve the house you already own and just stay put for a while…
The National Association of Home Builders' remodeling market index recently hit its highest level in five years, which only underscores this home remodeling trend.
Many Kansas City home renovations companies are seeing a significant jump in interest in renovating, especially from owners who have been in their houses for years, have built up some savings and managed to get through the recession without falling behind on their mortgages.
Kansas City Home Renovations No Longer About McMansions
Kansas City home renovations are generally the projects where people are no longer thinking along the grand, McMansion show-off scale; they're smaller, more modest, less costly efforts than five to seven years ago, with more emphasis on finishing details and quality than square footage.
Many of the Kansas City home renovations being made are not ones where the owner worries about immediate paybacks from their improvements. Most owners understand that the boom-time expectations of 100 percent immediate returns on their investment are gone.
Most people are happy with modest returns, which is right in line with what's happening overall in the Kansas City real estate market: a slow, modest recovery, spurred by modest and realistic expectations about where we're headed and how fast we'll get there.
Kansas City home prices rose for the first time in 10 months, according to the 
S&P/Case Shiller composite index released recently, an encouraging sign the battered housing sector is starting to stabilize.
It was the first time home prices have gained since April 2011. That gain was itself an anomaly in a string of declines stretching back to May 2010.
Kansas City Home Prices Likely to Remain Weak
Yale economics professor Robert Shiller, the co-creator of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, believes the Kansas City housing market is likely to remain weak and may take a generation or more to rebound.
Shiller, the co-creator of the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller home price index, told Reuters Insider a weak labor market, high gas prices and a general sense of unease among consumers was outweighing low mortgage rates and would likely keep a lid on home prices for the foreseeable future.
David Blitzer, chairman of the index committee at Standard & Poor's, cautioned that while there were some pieces of good news in the report, some areas saw home prices still continuing their decline.
The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas gained 0.2 percent in February on a seasonally adjusted basis, matching economists' forecasts. Seven of the cities saw home prices drop on a seasonally adjusted basis, while home prices in two cities were unchanged. On an unadjusted basis, 16 of the areas slumped further.
Home prices in the 20 cities fell 3.5 percent year over year, moderating from the previous month's decline of 3.8 percent.
"Looking forward, we think homes sales will continue to trend upward, which ultimately will result in a slower rate of home value depreciation," said Stan Humphries, chief economist at Zillow. "But any housing recovery will be dependent on job growth. Continued progress in this area is essential to keeping the housing recovery, such as it is, on track."
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