Availability and affordability of homeowners insurance are critical to the continued growth of homeownership and the real estate industry, which has pretty much been the pillar of the economy. Recently the insurance industry has experienced a huge surge in the number and size of property casualty claims these past few years. The decline in the stock market has added additional losses for the insurance companies who would use their record stock gains to offset the losses doing the premium pricing war of the 1990s. The average cost of homeowners insurance rose by about 8 percent in 2002 and is expected to rise another 9 percent in 2003, and even higher in some states according to the Insurance Information Institute. Property casualty insurance has become more difficult and expensive and is causing quite a scandal for the potential homebuyers and sellers and for the properties themselves. Homeowners with poor credit or who filed ?too many? claims could find their insurers not willing to renew their coverage. The underwriting requirements on properties have tightened up due to these ?claims? and in some cases it has become difficult to find new coverage for a new buyer of that property. If that was not enough, the existing homeowner could be putting their property in jeopardy by making idle inquiry to their policy holders. An inquiry like ?Do I have hail damage coverage and what is my deductible?, can show up on the claim databases that insurance companies use to get the history of a property. Like the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) which provide participating insurance company members with a score and claim histories of both individuals and properties. This was like a private thing that we the consumers didn't know about or have access to until now. We refer to this as a ?CLUE Report?. This is particularly usefully for homebuyers to get this information on the property they are buying within the first few days of the contract. Availability and affordability of homeowners insurance are critical to the continued growth of homeownership and the real estate industry, which has pretty much been the pillar of the economy. Recently the insurance industry has experienced a huge surge in the number and size of property casualty claims these past few years. The decline in the stock market has added additional losses for the insurance companies who would use their record stock gains to offset the losses doing the premium pricing war of the 1990s. The average cost of homeowners insurance rose by about 8 percent in 2002 and is expected to rise another 9 percent in 2003, and even higher in some states according to the Insurance Information Institute. Property casualty insurance has become more difficult and expensive and is causing quite a scandal for the potential homebuyers and sellers and for the properties themselves. Homeowners with poor credit or who filed ?too many? claims could find their insurers not willing to renew their coverage. The underwriting requirements on properties have tightened up due to these ?claims? and in some cases it has become difficult to find new coverage for a new buyer of that property. If that was not enough, the existing homeowner could be putting their property in jeopardy by making idle inquiry to their policy holders. An inquiry like ?Do I have hail damage coverage and what is my deductible?, can show up on the claim databases that insurance companies use to get the history of a property. Like the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.) which provide participating insurance company members with a score and claim histories of both individuals and properties. This was like a private thing that we the consumers didn't know about or have access to until now. We refer to this as a ?CLUE Report?. This is particularly usefully for homebuyers to get this information on the property they are buying within the first few days of the contract. A high score on a house can mean higher premium and can cause a buyer not to quality for the purchase. The Sellers need to know if their property has a stigma which would certainly effect pricing. Some homeowners have found that phone calls to their insurance agent are recorded on their CLUE file and can jeopardize their coverage. It has become just like auto insurance; To many claims or tickets and you can get cancelled or put in that high risk, high premium category. Choice Point is one of the major provider for insurance scores and claims databases and have recently made their databases available to consumers who would like to check any information about themselves or their property. Their website can be accessed at: http://www.choicetrust.com/servlet/com.kx.cs.servlets.CsServlet?usertype=c