Why are roofing prices increasing?
Is it time for you to get a new roof but you can’t seem to find a roofing company with reasonable pricing? Don’t wait until it’s too late. Roofing companies are not responsible for the recent increase in roofing prices. This outcome is the result of the Florida insurance market, inflation, and the increase in supply prices. This blog post is here to debunk the misleading reasons for the spike in roofing prices.
Florida Insurance Market
It’s no shock that when Florida’s homeowners’ insurance is on the rise, that home improvement pricing will follow. Over the past years, Florida has been expected to see an increase in homeowners’ insurance, with hurricanes and insurance fraud as the leading causes. The rising costs have led many property insurers to withdraw leaving the home repair market to raise pricing in order to protect their liability.
Hurricane Season
A huge factor that continues to contribute to the increase in the Florida insurance market is hurricane season. With recent hurricanes Irma and Michael, there was a multitude of insurance claims including fraudulent roofing claims. As the cost of claims goes up, rates go up and homeowners pay for them. Costs of water damage litigation and reinsurance are also shifting the property insurance market.
Fraudulent Claims
As roofing scams continue to flood insurance companies, homeowners’ insurance is inflating for Florida residents. Hurricanes aren’t to take all the blame, but fraud has played a leading role in inflation. A common variant of this is fraudulent contractors. When companies and contractors are out there making obstructive claims to homeowners, the public pays. Most of this dishonest advertisement comes from contractors (sometimes unlicensed roofers) and not roofing companies themselves. However, this affects how roofing companies must handle pricing.
Supply Shortage
Just as inflation and the insurance market have been affected by the issues mentioned above, so have the costs of roofing materials. Another primary cause of the increase in roofing materials is due to extreme inventory shortage initially caused by the COVID-19 shutdowns. This combined with Florida storm activity and insurance increase caused an inevitable rise in supply costs and demand.