-and-
At least one state in each of the nation’s four census regions (the Northeast, South, Midwest and West) made the list of the most expensive in which to insure a mortgaged home.
Source: Census Bureau
Written by: Caroline Short
Photo: Courtesy
You don’t have to live on the hurricane-prone Gulf Coast or in “Tornado Alley” to face high property insurance costs.
At least one state in each of the nation’s four census regions (the Northeast, South, Midwest and West) made the list of the most expensive in which to insure a mortgaged home.
Florida’s rate of $2,273 for mortgaged homes was the nation’s highest median property insurance cost, but median Florida households without a mortgage paid $1,442 a year, $831 less.
Over 5.3 million households paid more than $4,000 a year for their property insurance in 2023 but costs varied across the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS).
Information on property insurance cost is collected from all homeowners, regardless of whether their home has a mortgage, and is counted as part of their monthly housing costs.
Property Insurance Costs for Mortgaged Homes
States with among the highest annual insurance costs are not just located along the coasts but throughout the country.
Of those 10 states with among the highest annual insurance costs for mortgaged homes in 2023 (Table 1):
- Five were in the South: Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Mississippi.
- Three were in the Midwest: Nebraska, Kansas, and Minnesota.
- One was in the West: Colorado.
- One was in the Northeast: Rhode Island.
One might assume high property insurance costs, regardless of a mortgage, are limited to regions known for extreme weather — the Gulf Coast with its hurricanes, parts of the Midwest and South with tornadoes, the West with wildfires.
One of these high insurance states is far from the Gulf and outside of Tornado Alley: Rhode Island.
The median annual property insurance cost for Rhode Island ($1,538) was lower than in the most expensive states. For households with a mortgage, Florida ($2,273) had the highest median annual insurance costs in 2023, followed by Louisiana ($2,140) and Oklahoma ($2,041).
Property Insurance Costs Without a Mortgage
Florida’s rate of $2,273 for mortgaged homes was the nation’s highest median property insurance cost, but median Florida households without a mortgage paid $1,442 a year, $831 less.
Colorado and Nebraska’s property insurance rates were the highest in the country for homeowners without a mortgage (Table 2).
States with Low-Cost Property Insurance
Like their high-cost counterparts, states with low-cost annual property insurance for mortgaged homes were spread across the country (Table 3).
In 2023, the price of property insurance in those lowest-cost states differed by about $100 compared to the $700 range in the highest-cost states for mortgaged homes (Tables 3 and 1, respectively).
Conversely, states with some of the lowest costs for homes without a mortgage were concentrated in the South, led by West Virginia ($617), and the West (Table 4).
Selected Monthly Owner Costs
Most homeowners have some amount of property insurance on their home, often required by their mortgage lender. While not typically the largest household expense, insurance can be a big chunk of homeowner costs.
The size, type and value of a home, as well as the risk profile of the region it’s in, may contribute to different insurance rates across states.
The “selected monthly owner cost” metric adds up monthly bills and fees homeowners must pay, including the following:
- Mortgage payments or loans on the property.
- Real estate taxes.
- Insurance (fire, hazard, and flood).
- Utilities and heating fuel costs like oil, coal, kerosene and wood.
Table 5 shows how monthly insurance costs can contribute to monthly home ownership costs by dividing by 12 the cost estimates of the 10 states that have among the highest annual insurance rates for mortgaged homes in 2023 (Table 1).
High property insurance rates do not necessarily mean high selected monthly owner costs.
Homeowners in Florida and Louisiana, states with the highest mortgaged property insurance costs in 2023, had a lower median monthly housing cost than homeowners in states like Rhode Island and Colorado that had comparatively lower mortgaged property insurance costs. (Table 5).
The Census Bureau has been releasing information on property insurance since the 2023 ACS 1-year estimates and is set to release additional information on costs facing homeowners.
Caroline Short is a survey statistician in the Census Bureau’s Social, Economic, and Housing Statistics Division.
