Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Homeowner insurance

My USAA homeowner's insurance went up over 75% after we renewed. We can no longer afford it.

What company should I be looking at to get good insurance for a reasonable price? What has been your experience?

All help appreciated. Thanks

I'd check Farm Bureau

Visit your local independent insurance agent. Be prepared to also shop out your auto/boat/umbrella coverages too, as getting the best rates often requires multi-policy discounts.
Compare apples to apples. Watch the coverage amounts and stated values closely.

All homeowner/landlord policies have increased significantly in every market. In my market alone, my primary residence has increased $1000 over the last two renewal periods without claims activity.

We've had Erie for over twenty years. I'd also try Amica. I usually get quotes every couple years, Erie has been consistently competitive. They also get reasonable customer service ratings, though I don't think as high as USAA.

Sound advice here. I just did this and saved $4600 a year for same coverage on auto, home and umbrella.

Do the above.

I had Erie Insurance for 40 years. Moved to Progressive and saved almost half on cars and house. Same discount at Gieko. Felt like a fool paying too much for years. I guess you have to switch every few years so they don’t slowly raise the rates. Shop around. It was easy to get quotes, somehow all my info in shared by insurance companies, so all my deductibles and coverage automatically popped up. That was a little creepy.

Good advice, but, I am an independent broker.

I find many people have very low deductibles, and by increasing the deductible, you can usually save a good amount of money. Consider raising your deductibles on the cars as well, then put the savings in the 'cookie jar'.

If you look at the last time you had a claim, you night find that you would have saved a lot of money going with a higher deductible on everything.

Most insurance companies will also pay the homeowner the same rates they pay a pro, such as a plumber, painter, etc., so with some 'sweat equity', you can justify a higher deductible, especially if you are handy.

And, yes, here in the Front Range of Colorado, I am seeing double digit increases, especially on homes.

My local agent is a good friend and he shops our policies every August at renewal. Not unusual for us to change insurers often. Our renewal was going to go up 1200. He shopped our policy, bundled with auto and our home policy is going up 675 instead.

This.

My rates doubled last year and that was after I quadrupled my deductibles

I have had Shelter for both auto and home. Never another but I have shopped.

Auto for 32 years and homeowners 26 years.

Never an issue with crazy rate hikes or hang ups with the only 3 claims I have had.

Funny how insurance pretty much tracks housing increases, my house more than doubled in value over the last 2 1/2 years and so did my insurance.

USAA rates have gotten very expensive and are no longer the competitive rates they used to be. The service too is nowhere near as good as it used to be.

I’m not even sure what is a high rate for home owners insurance anymore. We own a 2218 square foot brick home, built in over sized garage, and a 1,000 square foot workshop that is finished as nice as a home, inside and out. Our annual premium is $1400.
High? Low? Average?

"Funny how insurance pretty much tracks housing increases, my house more than doubled in value over the last 2 1/2 years and so did my insurance."

Did your Dwelling Coverage A go up 2 1/2 times, or just the annual premium?

Most insurance companies have the Dwelling Coverage A increase on auto-pilot, using whatever matrix they have. They don't want you underinsured anymore than you do, but, most insurance companies are using 1-2 year old Replacement Cost figures, so they are behind the times to begin with.

In December, 2021, in the span of about 24 hours, the Marshall Fire in Superior/Boulder County, Colorado, wiped out about 1,050 homes and buildings. After the smoke cleared, many of the homes were under-insured. That is one conversation I never want to have with my client.

If your house costs $300,000 to rebuild, but you insure it for $350,000, you will pay a few bucks more each year for coverage.

On the flip side, if it costs $300k to rebuild and you have $200k in coverage, that will cost you ten's of thousands of dollars.

Where you are located has a huge impact on rates, as does age of home, age and type of roof, distance to FD, and much more.

For example, I just had a client move from the Front Range (Denver Metro area) over the Divide to Grand Junction.

We insured his Denver home for $461,000, and the cost of insurance was about $2,300 Per Year.

We insure his Grand Junction home for $592,000, and the insurance cost is $1,028 Per Year.

Grand Junction has very little damaging hail, whereas the Front Range, from Cheyenne, Wy down to Pueblo CO, has more damaging hail storms than anywhere on the planet.

We were in our last house for 21 years, and my neighbors on each side of me replaced the roof 3 times in those years. I waited until we got the golf-ball sized hail in 2018, and then replaced the roof. If it's not leaking, and I was not going to sell, I saw no reason to replace the roof for minor hail damage, which, of course, saved me from paying multiple Deductibles.

I own a disaster cleanup company. I don't buy insurance based on price. USAA is probably the best insurance carrier you can find. I can't get their insurance. but my typical insurance rates are 7-900 on a home. 75% would still be less than $1300, thats not going to break me. all the carriers have raised insurance prices quite a bit. Your replacement cost has probably went up or should have went up like 35% in the last 3 years.

Absolutely agree with going through an independent. Most of them work extremely hard to keep their clients rates down, to keep the clients happy.

Some states like California and Florida only have a few companies willing to write any new homeowners policies with greatly reduced coverages.

A big part of the increase nationwide is the costs of reinsurance is going way up. I have heard 300% in some cases. High inflation is destroying the value of existing bonds in insurance companies portfolios. There’s big losses in commercial real estate also. Money is much more expensive at the higher interest rates. This is getting passed on to consumers.