2026 Mid-Year Review Featured Company: Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown
Headquarters: Delray Beach, FL
Founded: 1939
Services: Property and Casualty
States Serviced: All 
www.us.bbrown.com/about/

What projects, initiatives, or types of work have been keeping your team busiest during the first half of 2026?
Through 2025 and 2026, affordable and low-income housing developments have faced severe insurance challenges, primarily driven by soaring premium costs, coverage denials, and stricter policy exclusions. Because affordable housing developers and operators work with heavily regulated, fixed-income streams, massive spikes in insurance expenses have eaten directly into budgets, threatening the survival of existing properties and stalling the creation of new developments. Faced with rising premium costs and even all-out denials of coverage, developers struggle to ensure adequate insurance coverage for new construction and acquisition/rehabilitation.

What trends or shifts have stood out most to you so far this year within your industry?
Spiraling Costs: Rates have skyrocketed, driven by general inflation, higher building replacement costs, and more frequent severe weather events tied to climate change.
Reduced Limits and Higher Deductibles: Even when coverage is available, insurers offer lower maximum payout limits while requiring developers to pay much higher deductibles in the event of damage.

What challenges or opportunities have had the biggest impact on your business during the first half of 2026?
Industry experts point to several forces that will determine how much of today’s policy and financing momentum can translate into sustained affordability in 2026 and beyond. Interest rates remain the dominant variable and future cuts will flow into both construction and permanent financing over the coming year. Even with some rate relief, many expect a lag before development pipelines begin to rebuild. Federal budget decisions will have significant implications too, with only a fraction of income-eligible households currently receiving rental assistance, and existing HUD programs are under strain. Private-activity bond supply is another key uncertainty heading into 2026. Rising insurance costs and climate exposure round out the list of pressures.

As we look ahead to the second half of the year, what are you watching most closely?
Industry professionals widely view the upcoming changes to LIHTC and bond financing as the most consequential developments shaping 2026. The new 25% bond test for 4% LIHTC transactions, in particular, is expected to unlock meaningful production. More projects should qualify for tax-exempt bonds and credits, but they caution that soft funding sources will remain limited, and a larger volume of available credits could continue to depress equity pricing.