The Homeowner Flood Insurance Affordability Act was signed into law by President Obama on March 21. The law has favorable implications for commercial real estate property owners nationwide as it “repeals FEMA’s authority to increase premium rates at time of sale or new flood map and refunds the excessive premium to those who bought a property before FEMA warned them of the rate increase,” according to a March 21 National Association of Realtors article. Under the new law, premium increases are limited to 18 percent annually on newer properties and 25 percent for some older ones. According to the NAR article, the bill also “adds a small assessment on policies until everyone is paying full cost for flood insurance.”