South Carolina's Wind Pool went from 70 condo associations to seven. The Department says the oldest oceanfront buildings are the ones still struggling
South Carolina's Wind Pool went from 70 condo associations to seven. The Department says the oldest oceanfront buildings are the ones still struggling
2026-09-19 · South Carolina · Regulation
The most directly association-relevant number published by a South Carolina agency this year says the state's coastal insurance market is improving — and identifies exactly which condominium buildings it is not improving for.
The Department of Insurance submitted its 2025 Status Report on the South Carolina Coastal Property Insurance Market on January 31, 2026, under the duty in Section 38-3-110(5).1
The condominium finding, in the Department's own words
SCWHUA began 2024 providing wind coverage to 70 condo associations, representing 735 individual buildings. These 70 condo associations represented approximately $800 million in exposure. At January 31st, 2025, the number of condo associations decreased to 20 with 175 individual buildings. By August 1st, 2025, the number of condo associations decreased to just seven, representing 23 buildings. The numbers remain unchanged as of year-end 2025. These associations found better wind coverage at a lower price in the admitted marketplace. In fact, many of the condo associations moved their coverage mid-term to save money.
Seventy to seven, in under two years, by choice. Associations left the South Carolina Wind and Hail Underwriting Association because the regular market offered them better terms — and many did not even wait for renewal.
The sentence immediately before it
The same page says something else, and the two belong together:
condominium associations with wooden buildings over fifty years old and located close to the ocean have been experiencing significant challenges finding affordable coverage.
So the honest summary is not "coastal condo insurance got better." It is that the market bifurcated: most associations found better terms in the admitted market, while the oldest wood-framed oceanfront buildings did not.
The residual market has been shrinking for over a decade
Comparing the Wind Pool's book at its August 2011 peak with year-end 2025:
- Policy count: 47,366 to 15,337 — down 67.6%.
- Premium: $97,007,667 to $57,117,778 — down 41.1%.
- Total insured limits: $17.31 billion to $6.73 billion — down 61.1%.
Horry County lost the most policies, 13,697, followed by Beaufort at 8,490 and Charleston at 7,019. The Department treats this as a positive development for consumers: it estimates the Wind Pool holds roughly an 8% market share of coastal dwellings, meaning 92% find coverage in the admitted market.
In 2025 the Wind Pool filed for a 7.5% increase for dwelling policies and 25% for mobile home policies. The Department determined the rates would not be inadequate, excessive or unfairly discriminatory and approved the filing, effective February 1, 2026.
Note the figure: 7.5%. It has been reported elsewhere as 8%. The Department's own report is the authority.
Why South Carolina is not Florida on this
The narrative imported from other states — carriers withdrawing, associations forced into a growing residual market, master policies becoming unobtainable — does not describe what the Department's data shows in South Carolina. Here the residual market is shrinking and associations are leaving it voluntarily on price.
Premiums are a separate question from availability, and the Department attributes coastal premium pressure to three causes: repair-cost inflation, surging reinsurance rates, and higher property values driving higher limits.
The Wind Pool itself is an unincorporated association created in 1971, governed by a 17-member board, with rates, forms and business plan regulated by the Department. It buys reinsurance to the 1-in-250-year return period with a $5 million retention. Section 38-75-400(B) provides that its rates are not intended to compete with the admitted market — which is the statutory reason a residual market shrinks when the regular market is healthy.
What this means for the buildings in the exception
A wood-framed oceanfront condominium over fifty years old sits at the intersection of two pressures that arrived in the same window.
It is the profile the Department names as struggling to find affordable coverage. It is also the profile most exposed by the retirement of Limited and Streamlined project review for conventional loan applications dated on or after August 3, 2026, because Fannie Mae identifies insufficient master property insurance as one of the two leading causes of an ineligible project status.
Insurance cost and financing eligibility are not independent problems for such a building. The same master policy is an input to both.
What the Department did not issue
No bulletin in this window addresses condominium master policies, association master policies, loss assessment coverage or the Wind Pool specifically. The Department's 2025-2026 bulletins concern producer appointment renewals, data calls on paid family leave and commercial general liability, credit accident and health rates, hurricane-season consumer notices, the SC Safe Home grant portal, and a rehabilitation petition for two insurers.2
The coastal report is the only Department document that speaks to associations. And the one insurance bill that passed a chamber this session died in the other.
South Carolina imposes no statutory insurance requirement on community associations; what a board carries is set by the declaration and by lender requirements. See insurance requirements.
Related South Carolina HOA Topics
Stay on top of South Carolina HOA law
Every week: new South Carolina legislation, court rulings, and regulatory developments affecting condos, planned communities, and property managers. Free.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.