Sitting in her car a few days after severe storms laid waste to her north St. Louis home, Margaret Williams described the moment she knew she needed to head to her basement.
“I heard a boom, and the house shook,” Williams said, gesturing to her home of 48 years. “That is a brick house. It was shaking like it was a box.”
Williams hunkered down in her basement on Walton Avenue in the Fountain Park neighborhood, crouching between the washer and dryer, as the storms of May 16 raged around her.
“It sounded like two or three big trucks couldn’t get their engines started,” she said.
“Then I could hear the noise. Bang, crash, bang, bang. It was horrible. I mean, it’s like nothing I ever experienced.”
Afterward, the retired high school teacher and her husband, Melvin, who rode out the storm at his auto repair business nearby, surveyed the damage to their 1900s-era home. Broken windows and crumbling front steps were the least of it. Most of the back of the house had collapsed.
Standing before their dwelling, neither spouse raised the issue: They did not have homeowners insurance.
“Mel and I didn’t talk about it right away,” Williams said. “When we did talk about it, it was my son who asked us about it.”
There’s little data available about who lacks homeowners insurance on the city level, so it is unclear how many St. Louis residents in the path of the May 16 storms are in that predicament.
On May 22, the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance issued an estimate that said up to 67% of the homes in three north city ZIP codes could be uninsured:
- 63115 - Penrose and parts of the Greater Ville and O’Fallon.
- 63105 - College Hill.
- 63113 - the Ville, Vandeventer and Kingsway East.
The department’s estimated data shows that up to 50% of homeowners in other parts of the storm-damaged areas are likely without insurance.
The state used American Community Survey data, combined with its own ZIP code-level data, to reach these estimates, which a press release described as “fluid and subject to change.”
Director Angela Nelson said the department already tracks how many policies insurers issue in Missouri. She said the early data about uninsured homeowners could help in recovery and rebuilding efforts.
“This is a rough estimate. But at this point I don’t know anyone who can give even an estimate of what that looks like. So we feel like we’re providing a service by at least saying, here’s what we think.”
About 7% of Missourians don’t have homeowners insurance, according to a 2024 report from the Consumer Federation of America. LendingTree.com puts the rate even higher, at 11%. Lenders require mortgagees to carry policies, but other than that, Missouri law does not mandate it.
Sharon Cornelissen, CFA director of housing, said her research shows that about 6 million homeowners around the country lack coverage. That amounts to more than $1.6 trillion in property, she said.
“Homeownership has long been this American dream for everyone, and this idea that once you buy a home you’re safe,” Cornelissen said. “But if it’s not protected, then your homeownership becomes very precarious.”
In a bind
Williams and her husband finished paying off their mortgage before the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Even though they were free of their lender’s requirement to have homeowners insurance, they were determined to keep a policy.
“When we paid the house off, we went to get our own insurance because we’d gotten it through the lender before,” she said.
That’s when the couple found themselves in a bind, one they were still trying to get out of when storms destroyed their home.
“(The insurer) basically said, ‘The premium will be this outrageous price and you’ll need to replace all your windows and you’ll need to get a new back porch.’”
Margaret Williams said the quote for replacing the windows alone was more than $20,000.
The Williamses sought out other insurance companies and got similar answers: higher premiums, even after completing the extensive renovations. Williams said one company representative told her the vacant homes on her block would drive up her premiums because they posed a fire risk.
“I’m a reasonably educated woman,” said Williams. “I was shocked.”
The Williamses declined to share the names of the various companies they contacted because they don’t want to jeopardize their coverage chances in the future, but real estate and insurance experts the Midwest Newsroom talked to confirmed that requirements to repair elements of a property are common before an insurer will issue a policy.
The couple tried to get a loan from their credit union based on the value of their house, now mortgage-free. The amount they were offered wasn’t nearly enough to cover the cost of the replacement windows and new porch. Margaret Williams said she and her husband saved their money over the course of several years, aiming to make the repairs. They were starting to get bids when the storm struck.
Living on the edge
St. Louisans are well aware of the legacy of discriminatory redlining and blockbusting practices symbolized by the Delmar Divide. In 2025, there is still a stark contrast between the north St. Louis neighborhoods on one side of Delmar Boulevard and the affluent gated communities just across it in the Central West End. When the May 16 storms barreled across the city, they ravaged communities on both sides of Delmar. City officials estimate about 5,000 homes and other structures were destroyed.
One Realtor who serves clients in north St. Louis called the lack of insurance “very common.” Williams said homeowners insurance — or a lack of it — is a frequent topic of conversation among people she knows.
“There’s a lot of people that are in that same situation in our community,” she said.
Even in the absence of definitive data, Cornelissen said, communities north of Delmar Boulevard – like Fountain Park, where the Williamses live – share several characteristics that indicate many homeowners might not be covered by insurance.
“A lot of people are living kind of on the edge, where their homes are gradually deteriorating, or a storm happens, and they can lose everything,” she said. “This is not just important for homeowners and families in St. Louis. But it’s a national problem that we’re talking about, too.”
The CFA research shows that people of color are disproportionately lacking homeowners insurance, with an estimated 11% of Black homeowners living without it. The population of north St. Louis is more than 90% Black, according to St. Louis University demographer Ness Sandoval.
People whose homes are valued at less than $150,000 are also more likely to be without coverage, Cornelissen said. Many neighborhoods in the path of the storms are valued at much less than that. The median sales price in Academy-Sherman Park, just north of Delmar Boulevard, is about $97,000, according to Realtor.com, for example. Prices are even lower nearby in the Ville, with many homes selling for $65,000 to $75,000.
Homes that have been in the same family for generations, usually mortgage-free, are also among those most likely to be without homeowners insurance.
“We call this heirs property,” Cornelissen said. “A third of these homes do not have homeowners insurance. These homes have been passed down for generations to pass on wealth, and we find they’re unprotected. They’re really vulnerable when a storm or disaster happens.”
Pricier premiums
The prospect of paying higher premiums is not unique to any city or state.
According to a CFA report released in April, homeowners insurance rates across the country have risen from an average of $2,656 a year in 2021 to $3,303 in 2024. That’s a 24% increase, more than twice as fast as the rate of inflation over the same period.
The states with the biggest increases are:
- Utah: 59%
- Illinois: 50%
- Arizona: 48%
- Pennsylvania: 44%
- Nebraska: 35%
In an article titled, “Why Are My Insurance Premiums Increasing?” on its website, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners provides several answers to that question. Factors include more frequent extreme weather events that cause a spike in claims as well as inflation and interest rates, which “influence real estate values and the price of goods.”
Olgun Sahin, a finance professor at St. Louis University, said insurance companies follow a simple business model based on the expected cost of future claims.
“The equation is relatively straightforward,” he said. “The premiums collected versus claims covered. So, if they realize that they’re not going to be able to charge enough in premiums to cover the potential or expected losses that they are going to be dealing with, well, they’re going to lose money.”
Nelson has watched other states, like Florida and California, lose insurance companies that cannot remain viable due to claims related to natural disasters.
“We are here in the Midwest. We have traditionally been middle of the road when it comes to our homeowners rates compared to other states,” she said. “We’re going to watch those rates carefully. But you know, if you have this additional claims activity, it’s going to have an impact on rates.”
Missouri saw an increase in insurance rates of about 12% between 2021 and 2024, according to the CFA research.
“If insurers don’t have sufficient reserves to be able to deal with, say, a bad year, then they may just pull out of the market,” Sahin said.
It’s something that worries Nelson.
“It is an insurance regulator’s worst fear,” she said. “I want to make sure that Missouri maintains a vibrant and competitive market.”
Experts interviewed for this article agreed there is no easy way to keep more homeowners from dropping insurance or facing hurdles to getting a policy.
Cornelissen said lawmakers at the state and federal levels have a duty to find solutions as premiums continue to rise because insurance providers feel squeezed.
“This is not a red state or a blue state or purple state issue. It’s impacting states across the country,” Cornelissen said.
She wants to see more states work with insurers to provide comprehensive data on who is not getting covered and why.
Finding a way
Margaret and Melvin Williams have not yet figured out where they will live out their retirement years now that their most valuable asset is in ruins.
In the wake of the storms, Melvin slept in his auto repair shop to deter looters while Margaret stayed with her daughter and son-in-law.
About a week after the storms, a red-colored notice from the city appeared on the door indicating the house is not safe to enter.
It’s unlikely they will be able to restore their more than 2,200-square-foot home.
“I think it would be an enormously expensive thing to rebuild a masonry home as large as our house,” said Margaret Williams. “It’s going to have to come down.”
An architect consulted by the Midwest Newsroom estimated that re-creating a classic home like the one the Williamses lost could cost anywhere from $500 to $1,000 per square foot.
Until recently, Nelson herself lived in the area affected by the storms.
“What will that neighborhood look like afterwards? And that’s such a beautiful area of St. Louis, I mean the architecture, the construction, the homes, the streets, the communities, they’re so vibrant,” she said. “And so my hope is that we find a way to help that area recover.”
Were you affected by the storms?
The Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance provides:
- A hotline: 800-726-7390
- This Resource guide
- Help to file your claim
Do you want to help people affected by the storms?
- St. Louis Community Foundation St. Louis Tornado Response Fund
- More ways to help and get involved
The Midwest Newsroom is an investigative and enterprise journalism collaboration that includes St. Louis Public Radio, Iowa Public Radio, KCUR, Nebraska Public Media and NPR.
There are many ways you can contact us with story ideas and leads, and you can find that information here. The Midwest Newsroom is a partner of the Trust Project. We invite you to review our ethics and practices here.
METHODOLOGY
Holly Edgell visited several north St. Louis neighborhoods to view and document tornado damage. She conducted interviews with homeowner Margaret Williams; Angela Nelson, the director of the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance; Olgun Sahin, finance professor at St. Louis University; and Sharon Cornelissen, director of housing for the Consumer Federation of America. She consulted and spoke with two Realtors and an architect on background to provide additional context. She consulted a St. Louis University researcher for demographic information.
Daniel Wheaton gathered the geospatial data of the tornado path from the National Weather Service and used the Census API to gather demographic information of the census tracts. Additional data on insurance rates was provided by the Consumer Federation of America.
REFERENCES
Exposed: A Report on 1.6 Trillion Dollars of Uninsured American Homes (Consumer Federation of America, March 2024)
Overburdened: The Dramatic Increase in Homeowners Insurance Premiums and its Impacts on American Homeowners (Consumer Federation of America, April 2025)
Why Are My Insurance Premiums Increasing? (National Association of Insurance Commissioners, Nov. 19, 2024)
Home insurance was once a ‘must.’ Now more homeowners are going without. (Washington Post | May 27, 2024)
Why a Growing Number of Homeowners Choose To Forgo Home Insurance — and the Nail-Biting Gamble They Face (Realtor.com | August 21, 2024)
St. Louis Public Radio tornado coverage (May 2025)
TYPE OF ARTICLE
News: Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources.
