Factors influencing homeowners in the process of retrofit decision-making

To better understand why homeowners tend not to strengthen their homes to reduce hurricane damage, we adopt a recently introduced analysis approach that, for the first time, treats the decision to retrofit as a multi-stage process. It uses the Precaution Adoption Process Model (PAPM) as a theoretical framework and a multi-state Markov model to represent the process quantitatively. In this study, we extend the method to determine which attributes of the household, house, and/or incentive program are associated with an increased likelihood of transitioning through the stages of the mitigation process using the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association (NCIUA) Strengthen Your Roof grant incentive program as a case study. The results suggest that different factors influence different transitions in the mitigation process and to varying degrees. A homeowner’s social network was highly effective in raising awareness of grant incentive programs and encouraging homeowners to decide to select a contractor to do the work. Homeowners’ perceptions of the retrofit’s effectiveness largely fostered homeowner engagement in the application phase and further encouraged homeowners to decide to apply for the grant. Overall, the insights from this study help us understand what motivates homeowners at different points in the decision to retrofit providing guidance in designing future mitigation programs that will maximize outreach, increase engagement, and enhance adoption rates of such retrofits. In addition to the practical implications, this methodology has potential for broader applications across different types of mitigation programs, geographic regions, and hazard types.