It's harder to get home insurance. That's changing communities across the U.S.

Ryan Kellman / NPR

Home insurance is getting more expensive in the United States, and insurers are pulling back from some regions as the cost of disasters grows. That trend is stretching the limits of what ordinary Americans can afford to protect their homes.

Community leaders across the country are sounding the alarm about a nascent, but growing, crisis — one that's likely to get worse as climate change drives more severe hurricanes, floods and wildfires.

"The risk of many weather-related extreme events is growing as the planet warms, and some of those impacts are coming fast and furious now," says Carolyn Kousky, an economic policy expert at the Environmental Defense Fund and longtime property insurance researcher.

Ryan Kellman / NPR / NPR

Disaster costs are also rising be