For homes without basements, if you get an Elevation Certificate, then you can likely get an affordable rate through FEMA's National Flood Insurance Program. You may still want to consider private insurance, but with an EC in FEMA’s program, we are generally seeing homeowners in this area obtain premiums that less than what others are paying for private insurance. After our pilot program officially wraps up, we will provide more details on those savings but, in general, savings are achieved when Elevation Certificates are applied to policies through the NFIP. 

Again, private insurers do not use elevation certificates for rating insurance, so you probably don’t need to get one if you are thinking of getting private flood insurance. The exception is if you think your home is on natural high ground that is elevated above the anticipated 100-year flood (see In some instances, an elevation certificate may show you are “outside” the floodplain for more).