Homeowners insurance by state: what policies really cost

The ranking, and what it is made of

Each state figure here is the middle ZIP code of the state: line up every ZIP code by its premium per policy and take the one in the center. That choice keeps a few very expensive beach or ski towns from pulling the number up, and it gives every part of the state the same weight. The ranking is not the one quote sites publish. Those sites price one invented house with the same dwelling limit in every state; the Treasury figure is what insurers wrote for the real houses of each area, divided by the policies in force.

Florida leads because coastal counties pay several times the inland ones: the dearest tenth of its ZIP codes paid more than $10,024. Oklahoma ($2,525), Nebraska ($2,434), Kansas ($2,289) follow for a different reason, the repeated hail and windstorms of the Plains, which give Nebraska a claim rate of 7.4 paid claims per 100 policies a year against 4.5 nationally. Colorado, with hail along the Front Range and wildfire in the mountains, ranks 2 of 51.

Where homeowners pay the least

Pennsylvania ($1,015), Utah ($1,041), Nevada ($1,077) sit at the bottom. Pennsylvania has the third largest number of ZIP codes in the file and few catastrophe years: its average claim was $11,664, ranked 49 of 51, and its paid loss ratio stayed near 39%. Low state medians do not mean low prices everywhere. In New York, whose median is $1,218, the dearest tenth of ZIP codes paid over $3,076, and the county medians of Suffolk, Nassau and Westchester were all above $2,500.

Who rose fastest after inflation

From 2018 to 2022 the national median ZIP code rose +5.7% on top of general inflation. The steepest rises were in California (+21.2%), Colorado (+20.9%), South Dakota (+20.7%), Utah (+18.2%). California stands out because its rise came with a jump in nonrenewals after the 2018 fires, covered on the nonrenewal page. Florida moved the other way, -12.5%, which is not good news for buyers there: private insurers shed policies, the remaining book changed, and many owners ended up with the state plan, whose policies are outside this file. The page on rising premiums carries these figures to September 2026.

Frequent small claims or rare large ones

Two states can reach the same premium by different roads. In Louisiana, Arkansas and South Dakota insurers paid the most claims per policy, 10.5, 8.2 and 8.1 per 100 policies a year. The largest average claims were elsewhere: Alaska ($29,852), California ($23,238) and Oregon ($21,424), where a fire or a total loss weighs more than many roof repairs. A state with frequent claims tends to raise deductibles and inspect roofs; a state with rare, large ones tends to see insurers limit how many homes they write in the riskiest areas.

Texas and the other caveats

Texas, ranked 7 of 51 at $2,249, has no nonrenewal figures: its insurers did not report them in the data call. In every state the file covers the HO-3 and HO-5 forms of the reporting insurers, about 80% of that market nationwide, so a state where small local insurers write much of the business is less well represented. A ZIP code appears only when 10 insurers and 50 policies reported there, so some rural areas are missing. The state pages list the highest and lowest ZIP codes and the largest counties for each state, and the lookup at the top of the home page works for any ZIP code in the file.

Using a state median with your own bill

Enter your premium in the calculator above. A bill well above the state median is not proof of overcharging: a larger house, a lower deductible, a claim, a wood roof or a coastal ZIP code all raise it. A bill far above your own ZIP code, at today's prices, is a reason to ask for quotes from other insurers and to check the dwelling limit, explained on the dwelling coverage page.