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New insurance policy will protect homeowners if their homes lose value

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Homeowners in Ohio can now buy insurance to guarantee the value of their home.

The policy, being offered by Home Value Insurance Co . of San Francisco, appears to be the first of its kind in the nation. It aims to insure homeowners against steep losses if their home has depreciated when it's time for them to sell it.

The insurance is being offered starting today in Ohio and is expected to be rolled out nationwide as the company gets approval from each state. The product is regulated in Ohio by the state Department of Insurance.

"I'm guessing anybody would have loved to have had this five years ago," said Alan Hoffmann, president of Hoffmann & Associates in Columbus, one of the Ohio insurance agents who will be offering the policy.

The insurance works like this:

• Any homeowner can buy a policy, typically at $20 a month for every $100,000 of value.

• The current value is determined by the sale price of the home, if purchased within the last year, or at an appraised price. The value is locked in for 10 years.

• The insurance premium won't go up by more than 5 percent a year.

• If the homeowner sells at a loss at some point in the future, the insurance will pay up to the percentage of value lost according to the nationally regarded Standard & Poor's Case-Shiller index. So if a community had lost 20 percent of its value in recent years, the owner of a $200,000 home who sold at a loss could file a claim for up to $40,000.

• There are high deductibles the first two years: 10 percent the first year ($20,000 for a $200,000 home) and 5 percent the second year. The purpose of this, said Scott Ryles, Home Value chief executive officer, is to deter flipping

Michael Barry, a vice president at the nonprofit Insurance Information Institute in New York, said he's never heard of home value protection insurance before.

"This is a highly unusual product," said Barry.

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