Do you need flood insurance for a home in Scottsdale?

Whether you need flood insurance for a home in Scottsdale depends on two things: where the home sits on FEMA's flood maps, and whether your lender requires it. If the home is in a high-risk flood area and your mortgage is government-backed, you do need it, and if it isn't, the choice is yours, though FEMA recommends flood insurance even in lower-risk areas.

I'm Jen Keene, a REALTOR® with eXp Luxury in Scottsdale, AZ, helping people buy and sell homes. Flood insurance is one of the questions a buyer should settle before closing, so I've gathered what FEMA, the City of Scottsdale, Maricopa County and the Arizona Department of Real Estate say about it, with the source named next to each fact.

This is general information, not legal or insurance advice. Your lender and an insurance agent can tell you what applies to your own address. I checked each source on November 3, 2026.

No, a standard homeowners policy doesn't. FEMA says most homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage, and the Arizona Department of Real Estate's consumer page says a regular homeowner's policy does not cover flood losses and that flood insurance is a separate policy. Maricopa County's Flood Control District says the same thing on its FAQ page.

The Arizona Department of Insurance explains what counts as a flood in a consumer sheet dated 2015. For insurance purposes, it says, a flood is any water outside your home that flows inside at ground level, and it adds that in Arizona the hard desert ground does not soak up water, so water pools on the surface. So if monsoon runoff flows into a house, that can be a flood, and the homeowners policy doesn't pay for it.

Federal law requires it when a loan is involved and the home is in a mapped high-risk area. Under 42 U.S.C. 4012a, regulated lenders and federal agency lenders can't make a loan on a building in an area identified as having special flood hazards unless the building is covered by flood insurance, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have to make sure the same is true of the loans they buy. The coverage has to be at least the loan balance or the most the program offers, whichever is less.

FloodSmart.gov, FEMA's flood insurance site, puts it this way: if you own a property in a high-risk zone and have a government-backed mortgage, you must purchase flood insurance. It says high-risk areas begin with the letters A or V on FEMA flood maps. Maricopa County's Flood Control District describes a special flood hazard area as one with a one percent or greater chance of flooding in any given year, and its FAQ page says flood insurance is mandatory if your home is in one.

If your property has a federally backed mortgage, FEMA says your lender will notify you if you're subject to its mandatory purchase requirement.

Then the federal requirement usually doesn't apply, but your lender may still ask for a policy. FloodSmart.gov lists the moderate- to lower-risk areas as B, C and X, and says that although some lenders may not require flood insurance in those areas, FEMA recommends it. Maricopa County's Flood Control District says mandatory coverage typically doesn't apply in FEMA Zone X and that your mortgage company may require it anyway. The Arizona Department of Real Estate's Buyer Advisory (January 2025) also says your mortgage lender may require you to buy flood insurance in connection with your purchase.

FEMA's own numbers explain why it keeps recommending it. In a fact sheet from November 2024, FEMA says that between 2013 and 2023, one-third of National Flood Insurance Program claims came from areas outside the current high-risk flood areas, and it adds that flooding doesn't follow the lines on a map. FloodSmart.gov gives a similar figure, nearly one-third of claims from 2014 to 2024.

If you're buying without a mortgage, ask an insurance agent about it directly, because the federal law above is written for lenders.

Start with FEMA's Flood Map Service Center at msc.fema.gov, which FEMA calls the official public source for flood hazard information. You can enter an address in the search box on its home page. FEMA also says its maps are continually updated, so a printout can be replaced by a newer map later, and I'd look again close to when you make your offer.

For a Scottsdale address you can also call the city. The City of Scottsdale's floodplain FAQ page, last updated May 21, 2026, lists 480-312-2356 for records, including flood insurance rate maps, and 480-312-2500 for Stormwater Management questions about floodplain regulations, elevation certificates and flood insurance. Maricopa County's Flood Control District lists the same 480-312-2356 number for Scottsdale floodplain questions, and it offers a free floodplain information service for properties in its own area.

The Arizona Department of Real Estate's consumer page also tells buyers of previously owned homes to ask the owner and the city or county whether the property has flooded or sits in a 100-year floodplain. That's a good question to put to the seller in writing.

An elevation certificate is a survey document that records how high the home sits, and the Arizona Department of Real Estate says that if community floodplain information isn't available for a property, you may need an elevation survey and certificate to get flood insurance, and to determine the home's insurability and premium rate.

The City of Scottsdale says homes built after 1990 should have one on file with the city, homes built before 1989 probably don't unless an owner had one prepared, and homes built in 1989 or 1990 may have one. The city has a document search for them. If there isn't one, the city says a registered land surveyor or professional civil engineer can prepare it. Ask the seller whether one exists before you spend money on a new survey.

FEMA says there is typically a 30-day waiting period for a National Flood Insurance Program policy to go into effect, with exceptions for mandated coverage and certain map-change situations. A FEMA fact sheet gives one exception as a policy a lender requires, and the Arizona Department of Insurance's 2015 sheet also says there is generally a 30-day wait for a new policy. A policy bought the day before a storm doesn't help, so ask your insurance agent about timing as soon as you know which home you're buying.

The City of Scottsdale says the city participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, so coverage is available to owners and renters of insurable property, and that you can buy it from any licensed property insurance agent or broker. FloodSmart.gov says the program works with more than 48 insurance companies and thousands of independent agents.

For a single-family home, FloodSmart.gov says building policies cover up to $250,000 of flood damage and contents policies cover up to $100,000, and FEMA's agent site gives the same two figures. The Arizona Department of Insurance's 2015 sheet adds that the program requires a separate policy for each building. If the home you're buying would cost much more than $250,000 to rebuild, ask the insurance agent what is available above that amount, because I haven't found a source that answers it for you.

It depends on the address, so I'm not going to quote a premium. FEMA says rates reflect many risk factors beyond the flood zone, such as flood frequency, distance to a water source, elevation and the cost to rebuild, so a quote for the specific home is the only number that counts.

The Arizona Department of Real Estate's Buyer Advisory (January 2025) says premiums are likely to be higher than they were in the past and that buyers shouldn't rely on the premium the previous owner paid. It tells buyers to talk with flood insurance carriers about current and expected premiums and about whether the prior owner's policy can be assumed by the new owner.

The Buyer Advisory lists flood insurance and flood plain status among the conditions a buyer should look into, and I'd handle it in this order. Look up the address on FEMA's map site. Ask the seller in writing whether the home has flooded and whether there is an elevation certificate. Ask your lender whether they will require a policy. Then get a flood insurance quote for that address from an insurance agent, so the cost is in your budget before you commit.

If you're buying with me, ask and I'll look up the flood zone for the address with you. And if a home you're looking at has flooded before, the Buyer Advisory says to hire a qualified inspector to advise you about possible future problems from the flood damage and any repairs, since for example mold can result if a property wasn't cleaned properly after a flood.

Here's how buying a home works in Arizona, step by step. Here's how the inspection period works in Arizona, and here's how financing works when buying a home. If you're comparing insurance questions for a specific community, I've written about homeowners insurance in DC Ranch and home insurance in Grayhawk, and here's my guide to buying a home in Scottsdale.

If you have a home in mind and want help working out the questions to ask, get in touch or call me at (480) 203-6605. For anything that depends on your own policy, your lender or an insurance agent is the person to ask.