Platform · Glossary
Wind-pool county.
A county in which standard property insurance carriers exclude wind and hurricane damage from primary policies, leaving property owners to obtain wind coverage separately — usually through a state-administered insurance pool of last resort.
The state programs 3Y tracks
Wind-pool arrangements exist along the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. The specific programs vary by state:
- Florida — FL Citizens Property Insurance Corporation covers statewide. All 67 counties in Florida are treated as wind territory in 3Y because lenders require wind coverage everywhere in the state.
- Texas — TWIA (Texas Windstorm Insurance Association) covers 14 first-tier coastal counties plus Harris County (which is flagged whole even though only east-of-Hwy-146 is technically eligible).
- North Carolina — NCIUA (North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association) covers 18 coastal counties.
- South Carolina — SCWHUA (South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association) covers 7 coastal counties; 3Y flags the whole county as wind territory because SCWHUA eligibility is actually ZIP-based, and county-level flagging slightly over-includes inland, which is the safer error.
- Mississippi — MWUA (Mississippi Windstorm Underwriting Association) covers 6 coastal counties.
- Alabama — AIUA (Alabama Insurance Underwriting Association) covers Baldwin and Mobile counties.
- Georgia — no formal wind pool, but lenders uniformly treat 6 coastal counties as wind territory; 3Y flags those 6.
- Louisiana — LA Citizens covers 18 coastal parishes with material hurricane exposure (the parish list shifts annually; verify against lacitizens.com).
- Hawaii — HPIA (Hawaii Property Insurance Association) plus private wind statewide. All counties in Hawaii are wind territory.
In addition, FEMA V, VE, and VO flood zones trigger a wind recommendation universally regardless of state — these are coastal high-hazard zones where wave action and storm surge make wind coverage essentially mandatory.
What this means for underwriting math
In a wind-pool county, the property insurance budget typically splits into two policies:
1. A standard homeowner's or landlord policy (often called an "HO" or "DP" policy) covering fire, theft, liability — without wind 2. A separate wind policy through the state pool or a specialty carrier
The combined cost is structurally higher than a single comprehensive policy in a non-pool market. The premium delta can shift a deal's cap rate by 50–150 basis points, depending on the structure value and coverage limits.
How 3Y surfaces it
3Y identifies wind-pool counties from county FIPS and adds a risk callout to the report's hero section. If a property is in a wind-pool county but not in an SFHA, the report shows: "Property is in a hurricane wind territory. Standard homeowners insurance often excludes wind and hail coverage in this area; a separate wind policy is typically required by lenders." If the property is also in an A or V flood zone, the callout combines flood and wind language.
3Y also models insurance costs against the higher premium structure that prevails in wind-pool counties, so the operating cap rate already reflects the cost reality on the ground.