Gave a presentation in a small town in Northern Michigan last week. A woman raised her hand and told me her home insurance had gone up 30 percent from last year.
Same story from a relative in Milwaukee.
It’s not just Florida and California.
A new study found a typical Illinois single-family homeowner paid almost $1,000 more for home insurance in 2024 compared with three years earlier, a jump of about 50%, making it the second-highest increase in the country.
The average cost last year for $350,000 worth of replacement coverage from one of the six major insurers in Illinois was $2,942, up from $1,968 in 2021, according to a nationwide analysis of insurance rate data by the Consumer Federation of America. The nonprofit examined rates for $350,000 replacement value policies for customers with a credit score of about 740.
In the Chicago metro area, the cost for that level of coverage increased by 46% over the same three-year period, with average annual costs rising from $1,964 to $2,876, the study found.
States like Florida and Louisiana saw higher prices for home insurance, but the rate of increase in Illinois raises concerns about affordability in a state that’s far away from hurricanes and wildfires, the study’s authors said.
Utah was No. 1, with premiums rising an average of 59%. Arizona ranked third at 48% followed by Pennsylvania at 44%.
But prices are rising all around the country, with increases hitting homeowners in about 95% of U.S. ZIP codes. The study also estimated that American homeowners collectively paid about $21 billion more for home insurance in 2024 than in 2021.
States with the highest average annual insurance prices in 2024 were Florida at $9,462 and Louisiana at $6,939 — two states infamous for weather disasters.
The report said discussions around high insurance costs often focus on states like Florida and California, but the data shows premium hikes “have not been limited to coastal states.” Wind, hail and tornadoes in the middle part of the country have caused billions in damage, the study found.
—
Also in Illinois, a consortium of Consumer advocacy groups hit the Insurance Industry’s continued willingness to underwrite fossil fuel projects that are contributing to climate change.
The consumer groups criticize the insurance industry for underwriting oil and gas expansion projects and investing consumers’ premium dollars in fossil fuel companies. Then, when climate change causes more frequent and severe weather events such as tornadoes, hurricanes and wildfires, the insurers raise customer premiums to pay for the billions of dollars in claims paid out.
Illinois saw the second-highest premium increases in the nation from 2021 to 2024, rising about 50% to an average of $2,942 for $350,000 in replacement coverage for a typical homeowner, according to a report last month by the Consumer Federation of America.
The average homeowners premium jumped 46% in the Chicago metro area over the same period.
“The insurance industry has a choice. It can continue to fuel the crisis, or it can help solve it,” said Mike Litt, consumer campaign director for PIRG’s Education Fund.
“The insurance industry has a choice. It can continue to fuel the crisis, or it can help solve it”
Dropping the fossil fuel investments would be enough for me. Asking for more than that is naive thinking.
Bear in mind that the publicly owned property insurance companies (Progressive, Allstate, Lib Mutual, Travelers, Farmers) are required to serve shareholders first. The way they do that is by maximizing investment income from their policy premium receipts, and—sadly—balking on payouts. (Fines for bad behavior are generally less than the bad behavior drives income, so they’re just considered “the cost of doing business.”)