Why is home insurance going up?
The BLS price index for homeowner's insurance rose +33.2% from its 2022 average to September 2026, far faster than consumer prices.
Independent site, not an insurer or a broker. ZIP code figures are the Treasury's for 2018 to 2022.
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
The 2022 premium at September 2026 homeowners insurance prices
$2,066
BLS homeowner's insurance price index: 33.2% from the 2022 average to September 2026.
| Same premium carried with general inflation (CPI-U) instead | $1,786 |
| Index rise 2018 to 2022, for comparison | 6.9% |
| Consumer prices 2018 to 2022 | 16.5% |
The index follows the price of comparable coverage nationwide; a ZIP code hit by losses or a lost insurer can move far more.
Compiled by Radif Partners · Where the numbers come from · Treasury FIO data, BLS indexes and the texts cited below · not a quote
Homeowners insurance prices rose slowly until 2022 and fast afterwards. In the Treasury file, the median ZIP code premium went from $1,445 in 2018 to $1,551 in 2022, +5.7% after inflation. Since the file ends there, the price index of the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows what came next: the index for homeowner's insurance climbed +33.2% from its 2022 average to September 2026, while consumer prices rose +15.1%. Carried with that index, the national median of 2022 would be about $2,066 today. The data point to losses as the driver: insurers paid out 34% of premium in claims in the median ZIP code in 2018 and 37% in 2022. The Treasury report lists climate-related risk, inflation, the cost of rebuilding and reinsurance as the factors behind premiums. Rises were sharpest in California, Colorado and South Dakota.
Two speeds: before and after 2022
From 2018 to 2022, the BLS producer price index for homeowner's insurance rose +6.9% in total, while consumer prices rose +16.5%. Insurance lagged general inflation in those years: premiums are set by filings that take months to approve, and a policy renews once a year. The catch-up came after. The index rose +11.5% between 2023 and 2024 alone, and it kept climbing in 2025 and 2026.
| Year | PPI homeowner's insurance | Index change since 2022 | Consumer prices since 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 218.4 | +0.0% | +0.0% |
| 2023 | 229.8 | +5.2% | +4.1% |
| 2024 | 256.3 | +17.4% | +7.2% |
| 2025 | 278.3 | +27.5% | +10.0% |
The index measures the price of comparable coverage, not the bill of one household. A bill can rise faster than the index when the insured value of the house is raised at renewal, or slower when a deductible goes up. That is why the calculator above asks for your premium today and compares it with the index path, not with your neighbor.
Losses rose before premiums did
The paid loss ratio is the share of premium an insurer pays back in claims in a year. In the median ZIP code it went from 34% in 2018 to 37% in 2022, a slow climb nationally that hides sharp jumps locally. South Dakota went from 22% to 67%, Minnesota from 28% to 66%. The workbook's own definition says that sustained high paid loss ratios "may lead insurers to request rate increases, change policy terms and conditions, decide not to renew policies, or exit a market entirely". The order matters for homeowners: a bad year shows up in the claims first and in the premium one or two renewals later.
Your 2022 premium at today's index
Example, not your result yet· change a figure to see yours
The 2022 premium at September 2026 homeowners insurance prices
$2,066
| Same premium carried with general inflation (CPI-U) instead | $1,786 |
| Index rise 2018 to 2022, for comparison | 6.9% |
| Consumer prices 2018 to 2022 | 16.5% |
Claims got more expensive, not only more frequent
Nationally, the number of paid claims per 100 policies barely moved: 4.1 in 2018, 4 in 2022. What changed is the cost of each one. A roof, a kitchen or a frame repair after 2021 cost more in labor and materials than the same work a few years earlier, and the five-year average claim in the median ZIP code was $15,105. Insurers also buy reinsurance to cover their catastrophe years; the Treasury report names it among the costs behind premiums, and in exposed states that cost is spread over every policy.
The insured value climbs on its own
Many policies raise the dwelling limit at each renewal through an inflation guard or a new replacement cost estimate. The premium is roughly proportional to that limit, so a ten percent rise in the estimated cost to rebuild produces a similar rise in the bill even if the rate per thousand dollars has not changed. That part of the increase is not a price rise in the index sense: you are buying more coverage because the house costs more to rebuild. It is worth checking the new limit on the declarations page against a builder's or an appraiser's figure, since an estimate that runs ahead of real costs means paying for coverage you cannot use.
Where premiums rose and where they fell
The largest rises after inflation from 2018 to 2022 were in California (+21.2%), Colorado (+20.9%), South Dakota (+20.7%), Utah (+18.2%), Idaho (+16.6%). Hail on the Plains and wildfire in the West are common to that list. A handful of states fell: Florida (-12.5%), Alaska (-4.8%), West Virginia (-3.8%). A fall is not always good news. In Florida, private insurers withdrew and many owners moved to the state plan, whose policies are not in the file, so the private market that remains is not the same set of houses. The state ranking has every state.
What you can act on
The price trend of the whole market is not something a household controls. Three things are. The dwelling limit: an insurer that raises it at renewal raises the premium in proportion, and the dwelling coverage page shows how to check that it matches the cost to rebuild, no more and no less. The deductible: a higher one lowers the premium, and in coastal states a percentage wind deductible already shifts much of the storm risk to you, as the hurricane deductible calculator shows. And small claims, which can cost more in later surcharges than they pay, covered in should I file a claim. If a renewal jumps far above the index path, quotes from other insurers are the test of whether the rise is the market or your policy.