As long as you have a mortgage on your home your lender will require it. If you buy it outright the risk is up to you.

if u r getting a mortgage the answer is YES it lists u and the lender as joint on the check if anything should happen to the house, and i guarantee you that the lender will not fund the loan until u prove that u have homeowners on the property, and in the big easy this probably will include flood insurance, now if u r paying cash and want to gamble that it wont happen again, no one really cares if u have insurance but y gamble a couple hundred 1000 dollars for the price of a policy, one incident fire, storm, etc and u will wish u had a policy.

you live in New orleans.. that right there should be your answer considering what happened during Katrina.. However if you want to take the chance of losing everything.. Be my Guest..

Just like when you are buying a car, you have to have full coverage auto insurance while you are paying on the loan. When you have a mortgage, the mortgage company makes you have homeowner’s insurance while you are paying the mortgage. If you do not get it on your own, they will obtain a policy for you, at a higher cost than you would pay if you get it yourself, and raise your monthly payments to cover it.

As other commenters have noted, any mortgage lender will require homeowners insurance. Even if you can buy a house without a loan, it’s a very good idea to have homeowners insurance. Katrina won’t be the last hurricane to hit New Orleans. Can you afford a total loss of your home? If the expense of insurance is a problem, try to work with a high deductible so that you can get the premiums down. Remember, though, that a high deductible shifts more of the risk of smaller problems to you.