Coastal cities in the United States are facing increasing flooding due to climate change. Flood buyouts, the process of acquiring flood-damaged or flood-prone structures with restrictions on future development, have become a primary climate adaptation strategy in vulnerable areas. However, concerns have arisen regarding the accessibility and inequity of flood buyouts facilitated by the federal government. Subnational flood buyout programs offer an opportunity to address these concerns and build greater resilience to disaster events. While there is no one-size-fits-all approach, this paper analyzes ten leading U.S. flood buyout programs to understand how program partner networks and institutional arrangements relate to equity outcomes. Programs led by environmental agencies operating under network-based institutional arrangements exhibited the highest equity performance, while engineering led programs administered under hierarchical institutional arrangements addressed key equity dimensions less comprehensively.