Homeowners Insurance Increase!?

[still_working]

Similar to others - no claims, State Farm customer for 15+ years, homeowners' insurance renewal was 20% higher this year versus last after very minor increases in prior years.

I shopped the rates a few years ago and they were relatively competitive at that time. The difference in cost wasn't enough to warrant switching, and having a local agent who picks up whenever I call with questions has been beneficial.

 

[jkern]

My homeowners insurance increased nearly 50% this year and my rental insurance increased 150% over the last two years.

 

[freedomatlast]

Homeowner's insurance actually went down this year but the insurance on the rental properties increase substantially every year.

 

[Badger]

I live in Florida about 2.5 blocks from the ocean. We have 3 policies - Homeowners, Flood, and Wind. USAA is our homeowners. I'm afraid to look at any of the new policy adjustments. I'll wait until they bill me. I'm sure it won't be pretty.

Cheers!

 

[rdy4er]

In Florida
2020 $2700
2021 $3800
2022 $4500
Total BS

 

[wannabefire]

You all must be aware of the huge fire that destroyed almost a thousand homes in the towns of Louisville & Superior in Colorado.

Most of the homeowners were under insured. Not through any fault of theirs - they trusted the rebuild amount that the insurers gave them.

I looked at what our house (not contents) replacement value is on our insurance policy and it is laughable. I will be speaking to our insurance company and upping that amount. I think everyone needs to have a good look at the replacement values in their policy - both for contents & the house itself.

We're unfortunately seeing more extreme weather events. And while the complete destruction of a home is still a very low probability event for most of us, the loss can be catastrophic. It is especially true for those of us already retired with no way of replenishing the loss.


Getting back to the subject - we've seen large increases in premiums too.

Yes, this is real. We looked into the cost to replace vs. our coverage and we figured that we were WAY underinsured. We upped our coverage and are paying more...

 

[CO-guy]

Our insurance goes up dramatically next month. The previous replacement valuation was ~$700k in 2018. Our agent reached out because the current replacement value is in the $1.4-1.8M range. That change in valuation brings our insurance premiums from $1250/yr to $2000/yr.

 

[Dawg52]

Got a 20% increase last November. Expecting more of the same this year.

 

[statsman]

Not sure if our claim (and that of 100s of others in the area) for the April 2021 hail damage here in Central Texas added to the costs, but our premiums, which we just renewed, increased 19.8% over the prior year.

 

[JoeWras]

Not sure if our claim (and that of 100s of others in the area) for the April 2021 hail damage here in Central Texas added to the costs, but our premiums, which we just renewed, increased 19.8% over the prior year.

Collectively, the hail claims are rising all the boats on the water.

Every time we have pea sized hail (which does nothing but knock off a few granules) the crews come through and find severe hail damage and neighbors all get "free" roofs.

 

[kgtest]

Just wondering if others are seeing SIZEABLE increases this year - just another nail in the inflation curse. Our premium due in July, with Liberty Mutual, went up 25% from $1345 to $1687/year!!! I have never had a single homeowners claim in almost 50 years. I may get quotes, but since I had my first auto accident last October, I may be between a rock and hard one changing providers right now...

Maybe this is the increased incidences of hurricane, fire, floods and other natural disaster costs that we all get to "share in?"

Yes, ours goes up every year. I have never filed a claim in my 14 years of home ownership...but I see my neighbors filing plenty of them for new roofs and flooding and what-not. I understand its a pool of claims from the neighborhood that pushes ALL policies in the hood up.

2018 + .5% (half a percent increase)
2019 +3%
2020 +3.3%
2021 + 18.1%
2022 + 5.23%

In 2021 with the 18% increase I shopped around and since home values went up so much, everyone had this thing called Actual Cash Value or Replacement value where its the number it would be to replace my home with today's prices. I kept arguing with the insurance companies quoting me that they were coming in waaay too high for that Replacement Cost value. They all argued and even the guy that was the lowest was still quoting me even higher than if I just stick with State Farm. I tried bundling home and auto and umbrella, and tried it seperate. I think USAA was the cheapest, but still more then I was paying so we didn't switch.

Insurance is insane. Currently paying $2,250 for a 3100 sq ft 2-story home that was updated maybe 10 yrs ago. 4 bath, Steel siding, 35 yr shake shingles, decent windows and not really in a flood zone, although the far back of my property floods a little, and my neighbors land floods quite a bit right by there foundation. I raised my property up by bringing in like 20 to 30 yards of black dirt so no worries of flooding. The biggest concern I have is I have large Oak and cottonwood trees that if they fell over in a storm would do some damage to the roof. But that would happen with a lot of homes. I'll cut them down before there is any risk to the property.

Basically in the next decade I will pay well over $25,000 for "insurance" without ever likely filing a claim. If I had to get a new roof, they would pro-rate it and then cut me a check for the difference. But I doubt it would be a $25,000 roof...maybe. The last roof I put on a home was 30 squares, I chose not to use insurance, and I got it done for $8,000 in 2012.

 

[Katsmeow]

Just wondering if others are seeing SIZEABLE increases this year - just another nail in the inflation curse. Our premium due in July, with Liberty Mutual, went up 25% from $1345 to $1687/year!!! I have never had a single homeowners claim in almost 50 years. I may get quotes, but since I had my first auto accident last October, I may be between a rock and hard one changing providers right now...

Maybe this is the increased incidences of hurricane, fire, floods and other natural disaster costs that we all get to "share in?"

I would be ecstatic with your insurance costs. Mine went from $3377 to $4302 with Safeco (owned by Liberty Mutual).

Part of the reason in our case was the freeze in Texas in February, 2021.

We did NOT have a claim from that or anything else.

I did get a quote for the best alternative they could find and it was a little les than last year's premium. However, Safeco offers higher limits and better coverage overall so we elected to stay with it.

 

[Irishgirlyc58]

I have Liberty Mutual for home, umbrella, and auto. Both renew in January every year.
My home owners went from $1204 in 2021 to $1384 in 2022. So 15% increase.
I guess I better prepare myself for a much larger increase next year.

Unless another insurance company is substantially less for the same amount of coverage I’m not switching.
I had an auto claim about 25 years ago and a house claim about 20 years ago. Both times LM was exceptionally easy to deal with.
If that changes then I’ll look for another insurance company.

 

[athena53]

Every time we have pea sized hail (which does nothing but knock off a few granules) the crews come through and find severe hail damage and neighbors all get "free" roofs.

I seethe when I see these signs pop up after a storm.

Free Roof*

*Must have insurance

It's bad enough in states such as TX that you can sometimes buy coverage that covers the depreciated value- so if you have a 15-year roof and you're halfway through that, you get half the cost of a new roof.

 

[W2R]

Here in a New Orleans inner suburb, most people (including me) have three types of home insurance:

1.) Flood insurance (from FEMA)
2.) Wind and Hail (=hurricane) insurance, from the state of Louisiana, and
3.) Homeowners' insurance for everything else.

For me, the first one to be billed this year was Homeowner's from Allstate. Yesterday I received the bill and paid for the full year. It went up $20.

I don't know about the other two yet, but will in a couple of weeks. Wind and Hail is the biggie.

OK, the bill for Wind and Hail came in today. It's up $303, which is 15%. (sigh) Still haven't heard what Flood Insurance will be this year. Total of all three is going to be about $3500. No claims ever on any of these homeowners' policies. All right, we DO love living here so we'll continue to grumble and pay promptly.

 

[dm]

In Florida
2020 $2700
2021 $3800
2022 $4500
Total BS

Mine went from $2200 to $4700. The city is also raising our Seawall assessment from $600 to around $1200. Flood is around $1,700 for $250000.

And they may let me go another 10 years on my tile roof, 20 yrs old, before requiring replacement or cancellation.

The agent said that may change.

 

[FlaMariner]

Auto-Owners homeowners....Western North Carolina......not complaining at all as we have a home in Florida (family home and do not want to know how much) and have lived in Louisiana......When we got the quote for this new home, we thought it was the quarterly payment! LOL. Incredible.

2022 $670
2021 $607
2020 $738
2019 $680

 

[walkinwood]

There's a similar thread on bogleheads
https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=377516


One of the posters mention Gabi, which is an online insurance broker that sounded interesting to me.

 

[karen1972]

Our Liberty Mutual home insurance quote jumped 30% in December renewal so I went insurance shopping.

Ended up switching to State Farm and got (home, auto and doubled our umbrella policy) for what I was paying to LM for auto alone.

I was told LM had gotten hit by a lot of claims last year due to flooding in our state and I assumed some of the cost was increased cost of replacing the home.

I saw it as a good thing as with that type of hike I actually stopped being lazy and did shop around and I ended up saving a lot of money.

 

[almost there]

Around 25% with State farm on the home. Will see what the rental does...when its renewal date hits 2/2023.
But looking around here, I guess I cant complain.
$1225.00 a yr. / dwelling limit $547,100 / dwelling extension limit $54710
But the prem. has about doubled over the past 10 years.
I have all my auto's, motorcycles, home, rental, 1m. umbrella etc.
So I pay the $1.00 a month fee for the single monthly online payment from my cking account. Rather than writing 20 checks a year. Best $12.00 a year I have ever spent. I cant change. Have had SF since I was 16. Get lots of discounts. So, I stay.

 

[Sunset]

Around 25% with State farm on the home. Will see what the rental does...when its renewal date hits 2/2023.
But looking around here, I guess I cant complain.
$1225.00 a yr. / dwelling limit $547,100 / dwelling extension limit $54710
But the prem. has about doubled over the past 10 years.
I have all my auto's, motorcycles, home, rental, 1m. umbrella etc.
So I pay the $1.00 a month fee for the single monthly online payment from my cking account. Rather than writing 20 checks a year. Best $12.00 a year I have ever spent. I cant change. Have had SF since I was 16. Get lots of discounts. So, I stay.

I just pay my insurance in full at the time, I get a discount for full payment. Can even use my CC for one of: autos, house, umbrella.
so I get points/cash back.

 

[almost there]

I just pay my insurance in full at the time, I get a discount for full payment. Can even use my CC for one of: autos, house, umbrella.
so I get points/cash back.

Not sure State farm offers points? After 45 years my discounts are huge.
Plus its a 6 month renewal. So for 5 motorcycles and 3 cars, thats 16 bills to pay. 2 homes plus an umbrella, 3 more.
No way I want to mail / contact them 19 times a year.
Probably break even with the cost of stamps. With the dollar a month charge.

My monthly bill just went up from $279 to $310 starting next month.
Due to the home owners increase. Its auto pay, comes out of our checking account.

 

[jazz4cash]

I just pay my insurance in full at the time, I get a discount for full payment. Can even use my CC for one of: autos, house, umbrella.

so I get points/cash back.

Same here, but occasionally it is convenient for me to make a monthly payment or two and then pay the balance. Most insurers charge about $3 per payment. State Farm was the WORST. They only showed minimum payment due on the billing statement and web statement was no better. It felt like they wanted to hide how much i was actually paying. I had to call the agent to get a payoff. The billing practices was a major reason I left SF. I will say they were excellent on two auto claims.

 

[almost there]

Same here, but occasionally it is convenient for me to make a monthly payment or two and then pay the balance. Most insurers charge about $3 per payment. State Farm was the WORST. They only showed minimum payment due on the billing statement and web statement was no better. It felt like they wanted to hide how much i was actually paying. I had to call the agent to get a payoff. The billing practices was a major reason I left SF. I will say they were excellent on two auto claims.

Is that the charge for using a CC? Am not aware of any fees to make a payment?
Aside form the $12.00 a year for monthly auto pay.
Thanks!

 

[jazz4cash]

Is that the charge for using a CC? Am not aware of any fees to make a payment?
Aside form the $12.00 a year for monthly auto pay.
Thanks!

No, it was a service fee for using a payment plan like monthly, quarterly, etc. it definitely was not $1. I was not using a credit card for the payments.