Despite the rain, it's been a pretty good summer on Cape Cod

The many rainy days of summer 2023 kept some businesses on Cape Cod from meeting sales goals, but the Boston Globe reports that overall, most businesses had a pretty good year.Paul Niedzwiecki, chief executive of the Cape Cod Chamber of Commerce, says 2021 and 2022 were record breaking years, and predicts 6 million people visited Cape Cod this summer.

Winds, floods, and fires making insurers say no to new policies

The intersection between three current crises: climate, housing, and economic woes was laid out in a recent New York Times article. State Farm, the largest homeowner's insurance company in the state of California will no longer issue new policies for homeowners' insurance in that state, even after repeatedly raising premiums. Not just in wildfire risk areas, but everywhere in the state. The reason? Climate change and the risks of fire and flood don't make it economically feasible.After Hurricane Andrew hit Florida in 1992, insurers suffered devastating losses and many national insurers stopped offering policies in that state. Florida came up with a complex system to insure homes and private insurance companies charged very high rates, but after the 2017 Hurricane Irma, even more insurers (and insured) faced huge losses and left.Louisiana is paying insurers to offer policies in that state, because their residents do not have the income of Floridians and can't pay the new higher rates.The factors causing higher rates are risk of loss due to wind, fire, and flood. And as those risks move farther inland, we can expect property insurance to be offered in areas affected by climate change less and less.