I've been with Amica for years. My homeowners increased 53% and my car 28%. No claims or changes in policy.
When I google "2023 homeowners insurance increase". Most info predicts 7-9% for inflation.
I guess it's time to shop for insurance.
I've been with Amica for years. My homeowners increased 53% and my car 28%. No claims or changes in policy.
When I google "2023 homeowners insurance increase". Most info predicts 7-9% for inflation.
I guess it's time to shop for insurance.
Ours went up a lot, but the house value hadn't been changed in a long time. It went way up when adjusted for current value. I don't know what it cost. My Wife did the shopping an decision making. She did change companies.
In California some companies are no longer selling home owner's insurance. Fires and flooding have been devastating to their finances.
Parts of Oregon are suffering the same fate.
Some homes in the southeast have been hit by storms multiple times in a short period of time.
Weather patterns are changing and will be causing havoc for years to come.
jtk
A lot has to do with where you live.
Here in CA, a couple of large insurance companies say that they will no longer offer home insurance. They claim they took too much of a hit due to wildfires in recent years.
I'm not sure how the other companies will respond but I'm sure it will be more expensive for some to acquire insurance.
I don't think you'll see much difference in premiums if you change companies (and keep the coverage the same).
I'm with USAA, just got my annual Premium notice for Homeowner's,...it jumped 47%.
The "coverage costs breakdown" showed increases of about 10% (which is typical because the house increases in value every year).
But this was the first year the premium increased so much.
I went online and got quotes from other companies. They were all close to the new premium, or a lot higher.
Which is why I say I don't think you'll see much difference if you change companies.
Get some quotes anyway, of course .... you might at least save a little.
(One of the quotes I got was from Amica....they wanted $200 more than USAA for the same coverage)
Here in NC, rates went up about 25%. Most policies went from $1k deductible to $2K deductible, in addition to premium increase, a double whammy. When rates go up like this, claims increase, as policy holders demand return on their investment. If I'm paying more, then I expect more syndrome. We have carried REPLACEMENT VALUE coverage for years, so due to inflation these cost have gone up, by as much as 100%. As an example, today in HD looked at a 20 amp breaker that two years ago sold for around $15. Today it's almost $40. Have friends who are waiting for apartment complex to be finished in SC, but they don't have ANY of the ELECTRIC BREAKER boxes for whole complex.
It doesnt matter how good a customer you are, how few claims you've made, or how stable your area is. The insurance companies spread their costs among all policyholders, when they have big losses anywhere due to fires, storms, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, etc. We all pay for everyone else's claims. Thats how insurance works. Ours went up 25% last year.
Thanks Patty, that's very helpful.
Most of California got extensions to file taxes for 2022 by October 2023 with no penalty. this was due to federal disaster areas declared because of wild fires. That tells you how bad the fires were last summer.
The federal government is still waiting on something like 100 million in tax payments from California from last year. That is one reason the possible federal default date was moved forward two weeks to a month from "normal."
Bill D
My experience was similar to Patty's. Some were less expensive, but not enough to change.. We have used Erie for years. Brian
I suspect that the incredible increases in the prices of houses has a lot to do with the increase in insurance premiums. Home prices have skyrocketing for the last couple of years.
I asked my wife as she paid ours in March. Our homeowner's policy went up about 16%.
Yes. So even if housing costs drop, as they are expected to do, as long as materials and labor costs hold steady, insurance costs will hold steady.
Materials and labor are rising so regardless of housing prices, replacement cost (insurance) will go up.
We are well into a rather difficult period. But it's not without precedent. We will ride it out and adjust. And then everything will cost more.
I had a meeting with my State Farm agent last year and bolstered coverage in a number of ways. We sold that property and SF will no longer write that policy. Living in Sonoma County now and with the Tubb’s (‘17) Fire and others, even if you can have the insurance pay-out you still have to find a contractor available to do the build and that process can take a long time. Depending upon where you are it is a consideration in your coverage as far as costs for temp housing etc. Most carriers here are forcing people into the State fire insurance program. Pretty cool work really. Capitalize the opportunity, socialize the cost.
Ours only increased a small amount, largely due to the replacement cost escalation that is normal every year.
Like Patty, I have USAA (53 years, I think). Our homeowners went up, also, but not too bad. I don't remember the percentage.
Mike
I don't recall mine going up much at all. Mine is around $1,400 to $1,500 per year.
Housing prices don't affect insurance that much because it is mostly the land that goes up in value. Construction costs are really what matters for homeowner's insurance. Land doesn't away in a fire or other event that destroys the structure.
That's exactly right. When I bought my house in California, my insurance company wanted to insure it for the full purchase price. I had to point out to them that the land was most of the cost and all I wanted to insure was the house. We finally came to a compromise.
Land here is VERY expensive.
Mike
Storms, natural disasters, materials costs all contribute to premium cost increases. All companies have to adjust or risk affecting their bottom line. I live in eastern NC where Atlantic storms and local weather events contribute a lot to this. I worked in insurance claims for 25 years and saw it all. Same concern for auto policies-labor and material costs rising, cost of modern features that may or may not be needed are costing a lot to replace. And don't live in an area with a large deer population-found this out first-hand when a large buck decided to commit suicide at the front of my Silverado. Ouch.
Thunderstorms with wind and hail cause rates in my area to go up. Some insurance companies have started to increase rates for older asphalt roofs because hail damage is more likely on older brittle shingles. A lot of homeowners will hold off until their roof leaks until replacing it. They are hoping for hail or wind to get a "free" roof.
I’ve been insured with AMICA since the early 1970s, except for a period when I lived in a state where they didn’t do business. My premium for homeowners went up 90% with the recent renewal. I’m moving my coverage to another insurer this year to save about $1200. I think auto coverage will cost me more, but not enough to offset the $1200. I am in a wildfire zone and I wouldn’t be surprised if my new carrier jacked my rates next year. I attribute this to the wildfires in California in the last few years and the safety issues with PG&E.
I’ve been distressed to move away from AMICA because I’ve have great experience with them. But money is money.
I just got my homeowner's policy last August so I won't know if it's going up till then. I thought the rates were very reasonable, and I attributed that (perhaps wrongly) to my insurance carrier being a New York company based in Ithaca that may not have exposure in faraway states where there have been a lot of losses.
That number sounds low by a couple of zeros: it's only 0.02% (AKA "round-off error") of the federal tax income from California. The IRS averages about that much from California every two hours.
As Everett Dirksen used to say, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real money."
Nope. Just looked it up. You're right- it was billion.
Where you live (how stable your area is) matters a great deal. Location is one of the key variables used in underwriting, and if you're in a a low risk area, your going to pay a lower rate per dollar of coverage. The reason insurers leave an area is typically that risk (payouts) have gotten so high, they can no longer sell insurance at rates that are profitable (often because the state's insurance regulatory agency won't permit rates to go high enough, and also because people just won't pay them).
Years ago now, I did a lot of consulting with State Farm, and got a good look at the process by which they set rates. Their rate database was huge, with different rates literally mile by mile in many areas.
I've been with State Farm for over 50 years. My homeowners and auto insurance both went up. Even though neither of us drives 5,000 miles a year.
Last week the tax assessor paid us a visit and bumped the value of the house by $50,000 so I am expecting another insurance increase,
Your homeowner's insurance shouldn't go up just because your home's value went up. A chunk of your home's value is the land. Your homeowner's insurance is based on the replacement value of the house which doesn't automatically go up just because the value increased.
Brian, the reassessment may or may not affect it...insurance is governed by individual states and there's a wide range of things that come into play because of that. Insurance companies will use any and all avenues available to them to tweak their underwriting over time.
I hadn't thought about it for quite a while, probably because it has been unremarkable. I checked and our homeowners policy has increased a total of 8% over the past five years, something like 1.5% per year. Not that I'm worried about the insurance company, but either they were overcharging me by a lot earlier or they aren't keeping up with inflation. Living away from the coast in an area without many extreme weather events like tornados and hurricanes seems to make a big difference in rates. Stringent building codes seem to help as well as there's a lot less damage when there is a weather event. It's sure not that our construction costs haven't gone up.
My renewal went up a couple hundred for the year. It is what it is. The Umbrella went down although that's likely most from going to one vehicle.
I am with Erie Ins also. I experienced a 38% increase but raising the ductible from $1,000 to $2,500 brought it back down. My car insurance did not increase 1 cent.
It's currently with Hanover. Might have been Geico at the very beginning of that period, it's been Hanover for at least the last four years. My agent shops it around for the best provider every year or two. I doubt that it is cheap in any absolute sense, nothing in MA is! Relative stability is good though.
Same here, but my automotive coverage went down upon changing companies. Homeowner's went up less than 10%. Both vehicles are 20 years old so it wouldn't take much damage to total them. They're both still reliable so I'm not in a rush to change anything. People complain about the weather in Pennsylvania but it's really pretty benign. No tornadoes to speak of, flood insurance claims are often a result of building in a flood plain before zoning. Wet enough that any wild fires are easily contained. The last significant insurance hit was 'Superstorm' Sandy in 2012 which cost us a new roof.
I called my insurance agent about my roof. After a long discussion, he informed insurance would be going up this summer and not to be alarmed Said it would be a huge increase…
Colorado is experiencing Huge increases in home and auto insurance. My Farmers policy went up over 100% last year. I switched to Nationwide which kept it at the same rate, but expect it will go up soon.
Colorado has experienced numerous fires and hailstorms over the past several years. Many insurers completely pulled out of Colorado. We have an area near Colorado Springs called Black Forest. As you would expect, it's a heavily forested area. Getting homeowner's insurance in this area is now either impossible or extremely expensive. Insurers don't want the fire risk. I'm concerned we may soon be like Florida and California where it's often impossible to get homeowner's insurance at any price.
There's no problem getting home insurance in California unless you live in a fire risk area. There's been some talk about forcing insurance companies to write policies in those areas (at reduced rates), but that would mean they would have to charge more to homeowners who do not live in those areas. My attitude is that people who chose to live there need to pay for the risk.
I live in a subdivision and it would take a fire storm situation that burned an awful lot of houses before it got to us - so our fire insurance is reasonable.
Mike