Sigh, homeowners insurance rates

[georgina]

Last year our rate jumped 25%. (800-1000) New bill has a 40% increase, so 1400 now. I’m assuming it’s going up all over, I will do some rate shopping but not optimistic. We are not in any particular hazard area.

 

[barkley]

mine renews in December so I'm waiting to see but won't be surpised-it jumped about 50% last year due to the wildfires in our region.

 

[Sheree]

our jumped too. i called and had them rerun insurance score for both me and dh. mine was better so i became the lead name and premium dropped several hundred dollars. our ficos are similar, above 820 but insurance score is different. no idea!

 

[LoveDaisy]

Mine has not gone up. Can I ask what state you are in? If your state is not regulated that would explain the rate increases if you are not in an area with natural disasters or haven’t had a claim.

Edit to add this link it may be helpful to some people looking to see what’s average by them.
Average rate by state

 

[focusondisney]

With the horrific natural disasters, insurance rates will increase all over the US. I’m in Western NY, no claims or credit score changes. Our rate went up 11%. We’re all going to be paying for wildfire & tornado damages.

 

[barkley]

rates ARE terrible but on the flip side I look at how much I paid just recently for a minor plumbing repair and even more so how much we paid just about this time last year to replace our HVAC system so mentally I have to balance the cost of my premiums against what the insurance company would have to put out in the (god forbid) instance of a major or total loss. what i've paid in premiums over the 34 years of home ownership is just a drop in the bucket of what repair/replacement would cost. we've had one claim on our homeowners in the last 19 years and if memory serves it cost the insurance company over 10 years of what we've paid in premiums. I will also confess to over insuring and increasing coverage every couple of years but I look at a friend whose (then) very recent built home was lost in a fire a handful of years back only to find that what they thought was entirely sufficient insurance came nowhere near to covering the cost.

 

[georgina]

Mine has not gone up. Can I ask what state you are in? If your state is not regulated that would explain the rate increases if you are not in an area with natural disasters or haven’t had a claim.

Edit to add this link it may be helpful to some people looking to see what’s average by them.
Average rate by state

Northern Virginia. Your chart is interesting, it says avg of $1687 for a 300k dwelling. Ours is worth more than that. PA and OH where I have perviously lived are in the $1300 range. I still think a 40% jump for no reason on our part is a lot. We have never had a home claim.

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

Ours went up because the value of our house, and therefore the cost to rebuild it, went up. The downsides to homes appreciating in value is higher insurance premiums and higher taxes. *sigh*

 

[scard192]

With the horrific natural disasters, insurance rates will increase all over the US. I’m in Western NY, no claims or credit score changes. Our rate went up 11%. We’re all going to be paying for wildfire & tornado damages.

Same thing for me in MA.

 

[reddog21]

shop around just because one company went up doesn't mean they all go up. My agent shops every year for me so I don't see that many increases.

 

[georgina]

shop around just because one company went up doesn't mean they all go up. My agent shops every year for me so I don't see that many increases.

I plan to, I have only been with this company 2 years. We'll see what comes up. Last year I checked around and couldn't find anything cheaper.

 

[barkley]

I plan to, I have only been with this company 2 years. We'll see what comes up. Last year I checked around and couldn't find anything cheaper.

the issue I found with shopping and changing was I got a better rate for a year, maybe two and then it increased OR while I got a good rate on the homeowners it got cancelled out to a degree by higher rates on my other coverage and by far one of the best discounts I receive is for multi-policy (though I get a significant chunk off by paying on a yearly basis for my homeowners, umbrella and utility vehicle/twice a year for my auto-and I also save on the stupid monthly 'covenience fee' most companies charge if you pay auto monthly vs. in full at each 6 month renewal).

any company (including your current) you consider look at any/every discount they may offer b/c you may be eligible to one or more you are not aware of. when we retired our auto dropped quite a bit b/c we were using our car far less miles per year which I pointed out to several people and they benefited from when their jobs went remote or at least hybrid.

 

[Dakota731]

Mine went up big time, too but I checked around and couldn’t find any company with lower rates. And you don’t have to live in a natural disaster area to have an increase. Companies have to raise rates across the board to recoup losses from high flood areas. They wouldn’t be able to stay in business if they can’t make a profit to pay employees and claims.

 

[FamilyGuy]

Our personal homowners insruance costs in Illinois are up more than 100% over the last 5-7 years. Deductible is up from $1000 to ~$3500 (1/2 percent deductible, lol). It's borderline disgusting... but I still don't think it's as bad as Florida or So Cal...

Edit, I just checked actual numbers. Premium was $1298 in 2015 with $1000 deductible. Premium is now $2482 with $2922 deductible. All else is similar.

 

[DisneynBison]

We just paid ours last week for the next year and it was up a bit but over the years it has sat at about .5% of the home value. The Home value has definitely increased so I would expect the Home insurance rate to also increase. We did add a extra million dollars to the umbrella coverage this year and that was only a extra $400 for the year. Probably over insured but don't have to worry.

 

[tvguy]

Mine went up $25 to $1,641. So no big rate hike

 

[barkley]

We just paid ours last week for the next year and it was up a bit but over the years it has sat at about .5% of the home value. The Home value has definitely increased so I would expect the Home insurance rate to also increase. We did add a extra million dollars to the umbrella coverage this year and that was only a extra $400 for the year. Probably over insured but don't have to worry.

better OVER insured than under-speaking of which, we were very thankful for having underinsured motorist coverage on our auto policy a few years back when a driver who opted to go with the state required barebones minimum coverage caused an accident with our car. that extra coverage handled all the expenses over and beyond the other driver's policy maximums.