Porch Estimates Initial Hurricane Florence Damage to Residential Real Estate at Nearly $3,000 Per Household

SEATTLE, Oct. 8, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Though Hurricane Florence made landfall at a weaker strength from initial expectations, powerful winds and widespread flooding has caused significant damage to homes throughout the Carolinas. Porch, a leading home improvement marketplace, has released a new analysis that estimates homes in the region sustained an average $2,919¹ of damage per home, or $180,978,000 in total.

"Wind causes obvious damage to the exteriors of homes, but once water is inside a home, the remediation process is extensive and expensive, and the damage isn't always as obvious," said Kyle Sandburg, Porch Vice President of Strategy and Research. "Looking at the area Florence impacted, homeowners are already hard at work to remove flooring, rip out drywall, and generally deal with water removal and restoration, in addition to tackling exterior fixes like roofing, siding and window repair."   

Following Florence, Porch has seen a large uptick of requests for the types of projects homeowners typically need to undertake as part of the post-storm recovery²:

• Roofing repair requests are showing the largest gain in requests, 23 times higher compared to the same time frame in 2017.
• Drywall and plastering project requests were 15 times greater compared to 2017.
• Flooring repair projects showed 10 times increase in requests.
• Window projects are five times higher than the same period in 2017.
• Home building requests are also five times higher. Most home building requests were for remodeling or flood and water damage restoration.

"We expect costs around home repair will continue to rise as the region recovers. In the wake of massive storms, homeowners usually look to tackle larger, structural related items before moving on to cosmetic fixes like landscaping or painting. Another potential impact to total costs is that nearly 95 percent³ of homeowners in the region don't have flood insurance, which in the end, could lead to more DIY repairs," added Sandburg.   

About Porch.com
Launched September 2013, as an online home improvement network connecting homeowners with qualified professionals, Porch has grown into the industry leading partner for the home. With more than 250,000 active professionals across the U.S., Porch partners with large retailers like Walmart, Lowe's, and Pottery Barn to provide home services fulfillment for their customers, as well as direct-to-consumer access to more than 160 different home services offerings through Porch.com. Focused on assisting customers at every stage of the "home journey" – including moving in, installations, assembly, repairs and ongoing maintenance – last year alone, the company facilitated over 2 million home-related projects, generating almost $1 billion in revenue for small business owners and sole proprietors in specialty areas such as plumbing, roofing, electrical work carpentry, and more.

¹ Based on an estimate of 60,000 homes damaged during Hurricane Florence and an economic impact of $38 billion. 
² Porch compared project requests from the period of 9/21/17 – 9/27/17 to project requests from 9/21/18 – 9/27/18 in 132 of ZIPs in the region impacted by Hurricane Florence. 
³ According to CNN

SOURCE Porch.com

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