MSB: Degree of Home Undervaluation Shifts in 2008
June 17, 2009
NEW BERLIN, WI-June 15, 2009 – MSB, the leading worldwide provider of building cost data and estimating technology to the property insurance industry, and a MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates (MDA) company, releases its findings for its current Insurance-to-Value Quality Index™. The ITV Property Index is MSB’s proprietary benchmark for assessing the degree of adequacy for homeowners insurance coverage across the United States on a year over year basis. MSB’s research reveals an estimated 64 percent of U.S. homes are undervalued for the purpose of insurance by an average of 19 percent.
This is an improvement over the prior year in the numbers of homes valued adequately, while the degree of undervaluation remained essentially flat.
“The ITV Quality Index provides an important reference point for continued understanding and improvement of coverage associated with homeowner’s insurance business,” states Peter Wells, President of MSB. “While not an absolute indicator of insurance adequacy on any particular policy, the Index helps insurance companies, their agents and policyholders appreciate the magnitude of insurance needs nationwide and forms the only known reference point from which to assess how the industry is performing from a book of business management perspective.”
“The improvement this past year is encouraging for the industry”, said Norrine Brydon, MSB’s Vice President of Research. “It appears insurance companies are again focusing on their most important asset, their book of business.”
About MSB
Marshall & Swift / Boeckh (MSB), an MDA company, is the leading supplier of local building cost information, residential and commercial property valuation technology and services for the property and casualty insurance sector in the United States and Canada. MSB has five offices throughout the U.S. and Canada. For information, please contact Michelle Bansemer, Marketing Manager, at 800-285-1288, Ext. 3679, e-mail Michelle.Bansemer@msbinfo.com, or visit MSB’s Web site at www.msbinfo.com.
About MDA
MDA provides advanced information solutions that capture and process vast amounts of data, produce essential information, and improve the decision-making and operational performance of business and government organizations worldwide.
Focused on markets and customers with strong repeat business potential, MDA delivers a broad spectrum of earth and space based information solutions, ranging from complex operational systems, to tailored information services, to electronic information products.
MDA employs more than 2,700 people in locations across the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada. The Company’s common shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol TSX: MDA.
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