Homeowners who built their homes to IBHS certified FORTIFIED standards saved thousands after Hurricane Sally hit in 2020. The FORTIFIED building standard is saving homes from Category 3 storm damage, and also saving homeowners and insurance companies costs on annual insurance premiums and claims.
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Homeowners who built their homes to IBHS certified FORTIFIED standards saved thousands after Hurricane Sally hit in 2020. The FORTIFIED building standard is saving homes from Category 3 storm damage, and also saving homeowners and insurance companies costs on annual insurance premiums and claims.
When Warren Hopper moved to Fairhope, Alabama, nine miles from the Gulf Coast, he was well aware of the weather risks. An insurance broker by trade, Hopper spent his life calculating risks to homes and infrastructure projects, so he knew the high probability of a hurricane damaging any home he built.
“I was spending $4,000-5,000 a year on insurance premiums and nothing was based on science,” Hopper told The Epicenter.
He opted to build his new home in 2017 to the FORTIFIED Gold standard–the top tier of housing construction certified by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS). FORTIFIED homes are structures that have been certified by IBHS to have incorporated specific building materials and specifications known to fare better in high wind and rain events.
“As a consumer living in South Alabama, I first started to become invested in the whole resilience construction conversation when the state of Alabama passed mandatory discounts,” he said. “That's when I first heard the buzz like, ‘Wow, okay, I think I'd like to pay $2,000 instead of $4,000 a year for my insurance’.”
Alabama had just implemented a first of its kind bill that offered homeowners who upgraded or built their homes to FORTIFIED standards up to 55% off the wind portion of their insurance premiums and offered grants of up to $10,000 to all owners of existing homes to upgrade them to the FORTIFIED standard. Hopper said he ultimately paid $5,000-$6,000 out of pocket to buy the necessary upgrade materials to meet certification standards for his new home.
That investment yielded savings for Hopper on his near-term insurance premiums, but the insurance credit was just the start of Hopper’s cost savings. Hopper fully realized the magnitude of his decision when Hurricane Sally struck Alabama in 2020.
All 84 houses in Hopper’s Fairhope neighborhood were similarly built to FORTIFIED standards and he said none of them had any leaks post-storms. The adjacent neighborhood though, built to state code, spent the next two years largely covered with blue tarps to keep rain out following damage.
“It just demonstrates the difference in small things that the IBHS has developed that make a difference,” said Hopper. “They understand the physics of wind.”
Hopper’s experience didn’t exist in a silo, according to a 2025 study conducted by Lawrence Powell of the University of Alabama’s Center for Risk and Insurance Research. The study looked at how FORTIFIED homes fared in Alabama following Hurricane Sally, a Category Two storm that hit the south in 2020. While insured losses were estimated to be between $1 and $3 billion after the storm, the study found that FORTIFIED homes fared significantly better, saving homeowners and insurers money across the board.
The study found:
Alabama is not a stranger to devastating hurricanes. This means that insurance companies in the state are constantly re-evaluating how to price homes after having to pay out billions post-storms. To shed exposure from paying more in claims, it means they typically raise rates.
“You saw people at the coast in Alabama in particular after Ivan in Mobile…premiums increased 100-200%,” said Powell.
As of mid-2025, there are over 81,000 FORTIFIED certified Homes in the U.S., and 52,000 of them are in Alabama. The dominance of the certified homes in the state is in large part due to an effort by local leaders to keep insurance prices down for homeowners.
In 2009, Alabama was the first state to offer incentives for building homes to higher standards than the current zoning codes and to build to FORTIFIED certifications. The state passed legislation to offer homeowners discounts for structures built to standards to resist storms. The bill, SB500, mandated that all insurance companies operating in Alabama must offer premium discounts or rate reductions for eligible, risk-reduced properties located in Alabama’s Mobile and Baldwin Counties and suggested they expand it to all areas. In 2015, SB254 expanded the premium offerings to commercial buildings.
Since then the state has also passed bills that give tax deductions for mitigation for wind and floods, catastrophe savings accounts, and a Fortified roof endorsement–which is an insurance policy rider that replaces a damaged roof, typically 51% damage or more, to FORTIFIED standards, according to Graham Green, communications director for Smart Home America. In 2011, Alabama became the first state to create a grant program tied to FORTIFIED called Strengthen Alabama Homes. The law also offers discounts to FORTIFIED Multifamily and Commercial properties.
As of 2025, Alabama is the only state with regulated minimum discounts, according to Green. Alabama residents can get up to 55% off the wind portion of a homeowner's premium for FORTIFIED Gold homes, and up to 35% for FORTIFIED Roof homes, said Green.
IBHS first introduced the fortified homes certification in 2010. IBHS currently offers three levels of certification: FORTIFIED roofs, FORTIFIED silver, and FORTIFIED gold. Each tier represents more precautions builders incorporate into a building to better equip it in the face of major wind and rain events.
There are several main components to consider when building or refurbishing to fortified standards, including sealed roof decks, impact resistant shingles, and locked down roof edges. The silver standard also includes specifications for windows and doors, while gold has additional requirements for the entire home.
Once built to FORTIFIED code, the home is certified through IBHS and homeowners receive a certificate that can be shown to any insurance company.
Other states are taking note of Alabama's model. Seventeen other states now offer insurance discounts for building to FORTIFIED standards or are developing grant programs, according to Green. Still other states are considering similar solutions and/or building programs for different perils (e.g. wildfire, flood) based on the Alabama model. Nextdoor, Louisiana began administering its own Fortify Homes program in October 2023 that offers a tax deduction of up to $5,000. A recently released report found that people who participated in the Louisiana state grant program saved an average of 22% on their insurance.
Insurance companies also have a lot to gain from insuring FORTIFIED homes, and incentivizing homes to be built to those standards.
“When claims rise, insurance companies have to find a way to make a profit. There’s a delta between claims and profit they have to consider when deciding to cover a home and FORTIFIED homes bridges that,” said Hopper, “It’s now widely adopted in coastal Alabama.”
Hopper says that insurers don’t always talk about the benefits of being certified though, and says they could overall be better advocates for the program.
The aforementioned study by the Center for Risk and Insurance Research, found that if all the houses in Alabama had been built to the Fortified Gold Standard before Hurricane Sally, insurers would have saved $111.8 million (75% of the total they paid as claims for policies).
A separate study, from The Center for Risk and Insurance Research’s Lawrence Powell, found that FORTIFIED homes sell for more in the coastal region, likely because homeowners know of the expected cost savings on insurance premiums and future claims. The study found that for houses at the coast, the wind portion of insurance premiums is about 80% of the total premium, according to the Alabama Department of Insurance.
The study also found that buyers on average are willing to pay 6-7% more for homes constructed or retrofitted to achieve IBHS Fortified designations compared to conventional homes.
Hopper is currently looking to sell his home. He said so far he’s refused to put offers down on three homes his wife and daughter adored, because they were not built to FORTIFIED standards and therefore won’t get the discounts on premiums.
As a local, Hopper has said he’s proud of the FORTIFIED standards Alabama passed. “There’s not much we are usually first in in Alabama,” he said. “There’s Alabama Football, Roll Tide, and FORTIFIED homes.”
Alabama’s FORTIFIED model sets an example for the country for how building for resiliency benefits all parties involved. In addition to homeowner savings, and good public policymaking, insurers are also able to retain coverage in an area that might have otherwise become too expensive to cover.
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