Updated March 24, 2026, 5:38 p.m. ET
While wildfires and hurricanes seize headlines, one other sort of extreme climate might current unappreciated dangers for householders and insurers.
More than 43.5 million U.S. properties are at reasonable or higher danger from damaging hail, based on a brand new report from Cotality, an actual property knowledge supplier. Hailstorms can now trigger monetary losses corresponding to a Category 4 hurricane, the report concludes, and damage which will value as much as $17.84 trillion to reconstruct.
In 2025, Cotality notes, the United States recorded 142 days with damaging hail − seven greater than in 2024 and properly above the 20-year common of 122 days. During these occasions, greater than 600,000 properties had been hit with hailstones 2 inches or bigger.
Beyond altering climate patterns, properties are extra in danger as a result of housing inventory is ageing, the report says. Older roofs are extra brittle and prone to fail when hail strikes a house than these which are newer.
Rising danger additionally comes from the alternatives Americans make about the place to reside.
Texas leads the nation with almost 8 million properties in danger, and $3.09 trillion in potential reconstruction prices, the report says.
A large storm cluster in Texas in June 2023 demonstrated the possibly steep prices of hail damage. “From June 11 to June 15, hail greater than one inch affected more than 680,000 residential homes. Cotality estimated these storms caused between $7 to $10 billion in insured losses, 95% of which were due to hail.”
Cotality knowledge additionally highlights heavier dangers in different components of the Midwest. “Secondary markets like Minneapolis, St. Louis, Kansas City, and Denver sit dangerously close to major weather collision zones, making them frequent targets for severe spring and summer storms,” the report says.
Critically, earlier Cotality analysis confirmed that hail hits hardest in most of the extra reasonably priced areas, such as the Midwest, that are home to some of the youngest buyers.
Those trade-offs carry danger, Cotality analysts wrote in May 2025.
“What began as a search for affordability may end in loss. Not from bad decisions, but from a system that has not kept up with the environment. Resilience is no longer an ideal. It is a requirement,” the report mentioned.
