Huge props to our Realtor association who worked tirelessly over the past few days to keep our industry humming along. When FEMA announced a halt to National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) polices during the partial shutdown of the federal government, NAR sprang into action to ask for a reconsideration since the impact on home sales could reach as high as 40,000 transactions lost every month that flood insurance is not available.  We’ve learned the Federal Emergency Management Agency will issue and renew flood insurance policies, reversing an unexpected and controversial ruling the agency released earlier this week.

As many of you who have been following this know, we have been advocating for passage of the Dec. 21 legislation that extended the National Flood Insurance Program until May 31, 2019. In an unexpected policy decision on Dec. 26, FEMA said it couldn’t allow insurers to issue and renew federal policies while the partial government shutdown was ongoing. December 28th, FEMA reversed that ruling.  “We thank the Administration and Congress for stepping up so quickly to ensure the smooth continuation of flood insurance at a time when market disruption would be extremely hard-felt,” says Shannon McGahn, NAR senior vice president of government affairs.