How much should my homeowners insurance cost?

Have you owned your home for more than ten years? If so, your homeowners insurance cost has likely doubled, or more, since buying the home.

Since 2000, home insurance prices have been increasing at approximately the same pace as health insurance prices. For most consumers, this is a problem. However, the price increases are less noticeable for the reason that home insurance doesn’t get the same media coverage as the highly politicized cost of  health insurance.

Find out what homeowners insurance costs in your area using our home insurance cost estimator. Just click the button below.

What determines my homeowners insurance cost?

Homeowners insurance cost is determined based on risk. Your insurance company will make an assessment of the risks they will need to pay insurance claims related to the home. For example, do you live in a state where lightning, wild fires, heavy winds or damaging hail storms are common? Or, do you have a lifestyle or history of accidents resulting in bodily injury claims or property damage?

Other factors considered include items like the potential for vandalism, theft or injury. However, roughly 75% of the claims paid by insurance companies fall into the risk categories related to weather. Therefore, if these are risks common to you or where you live, the impact on the home insurance cost for you is significant.

What can I do about my homeowners insurance cost?

For many families, homeowners insurance costs are larger than health insurance costs. The reason is that employers don’t pay for home insurance. Fortunately, for people employed by a corporation, the company pays much of their health insurance cost.

Start by knowing the quality level your current insurance company provides. Not all insurance is created equal. When protecting what is likely your most valuable asset, you want to make sure it’s properly protected. That’s not just the coverage you carry. Proper protection also means buying insurance through a company that is good about paying claims. Just click the button below to get a rating on your home insurance company.

The risk to your home from factors like wind, fire, hail and lightning is dependent on where you live. Therefore, insurance costs are heavily influenced by the location of your home. For example, in Florida, the average cost of home insurance is more than $2,000. However, in Idaho the average cost of home insurance is only $600. This extreme difference is because insurers face a higher risk of a catastrophic event in Florida as compared to Idaho.

How to find the best homeowners insurance using ValChoice?

Let’s assume you’re not willing to move to save money on homeowners insurance. Follow the three-steps below to save money on insurance while making sure you’re well protected.

1. Find a fair price using our home insurance calculator
2. Get a free homeowners insurance rating to find the quality level of your current provider
3. If the quality level is poor, get a new provider by shopping with the best companies in your state. If their quality level is good, you can still compare their price to the best homeowners insurance companies in the state.

To skip these steps, use the ValChoice find an agent service. Agents using ValChoice tools can provide all this information to you for free. Just click the button below.

With this approach you will get both good protection and a fair price.