A Rant: Homeowners Insurance

officerripley

officerripley

Well-known Member
Location
Porlock, Calif
Well, wish me luck: had a heck of a time finding a company to insure our home; finally found only one; they're charging us an arm and a leg; and this morning they sent an inspector out to prowl around the place. Huzz wouldn't let her inside since we've got Covid. So I googled what does that mean and it said companies usually do that if they're either going to deny a claim or not renew coverage. That was fast: I just paid for the whole year last week.

Oh how I wish I'd been able to convince Huzz to move out of this darn place when we had the chance, so worried.
 

Depending on where you live it's getting harder and harder to even find someone to cover your home. We won't talk about those areas that have suffered wide spread catastrophic incidents.

Mine went up again this year. No real reason why. No huge losses in the area but there you go. Got to have insurance.
 

officerripley said:
Well, wish me luck: had a heck of a time finding a company to insure our home; finally found only one; they're charging us an arm and a leg; and this morning they sent an inspector out to prowl around the place. Huzz wouldn't let her inside since we've got Covid. So I googled what does that mean and it said companies usually do that if they're either going to deny a claim or not renew coverage. That was fast: I just paid for the whole year last week.

Oh how I wish I'd been able to convince Huzz to move out of this darn place when we had the chance, so worried.
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It may all work out fine for you. I switched home insurance to State Farm 2 years ago and they came out to inspect. They took pictures. My home was built in 1965, so the biggest issue was the wiring (every electric wall outlet outlet has only 2 holes) but they insured me.
 
It is very difficult to find insurance here in Florida. It is such a problem that it has completely slowed down the real estate market.
There has been multiple discussions on the Nextdoor app. whereas people received a letter from their insurance company telling them that they will no longer be able to insure them. People would find another company to insure them (if at all possible) at a reasonable price only to see those rates going up drastically the following year. It does not matter if you have made a claim or not!
One of our friends lives in Fort Lauderdale. His insurance for the year came to $10,000 two years ago. He decided to drop insurance all together. He owns his home.
So far, we have been lucky with ours.
Our daughter lived through a Category 5 hurricane back in 2018. She had damage to her house. The insurance paid but that company bailed out of Florida along with others after that. She was lucky to find another one to cover her home and cars.
Insurance companies make deals with politicians here in Florida.
 
I feel so bad for you that your husband refuses to move Officer! I'm confused...you said you paid for a year, so did they ultimately decide to cover you? Wow, $12,000! I sure hope yours isn't that much. I'm feeling blessed right now. Granted I don't own a big house, just an apartment in a co-op complex, but my insurance, called renter's insurance, is only $466 for the year, up about $6 from last year and that includes a senior discount. Of course, the extent of the coverage one has determines the price.
 
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Homeowners came due in mid-May. Shopped around and switched to Allstate, paid the entire year's premium. Lower coverage, higher premium. An inspector came out, did not come inside. Two weeks later, received a letter saying they would terminate the coverage in July unless I cleared all trees, brush, etc., within 50 feet of the house. I live in a forest. Wild fire risk, they said.

I called the previous company and they refused coverage, wild fire risk. Couldn't you just renew the old policy? No. Every company said No, wild fire risk, except USAA, expensive. Went with them. A week later, got a letter from the old company saying if I paid the entire premium with a $5.00 "late fee", they would renew. What???

Then, a couple of months later, received a letter from the mortgage company saying their records showed I had no insurance, they would buy a policy with MUCH higher premium and MUCH lower coverage if I didn't get my own policy. Called the insurance company; they had mailed the notice of insurance to the wrong address. Sheesh.

I am making quadruple payments every month on the mortgage. Once it is paid off in a few years, I will drop insurance and take my chances. In fifty years, I have never had a claim.
 
GoodEnuff said:
I am making quadruple payments every month on the mortgage. Once it is paid off in a few years, I will drop insurance and take my chances. In fifty years, I have never had a claim.
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I've thought of doing the same thing, but if the house was severely damaged or worse: totally destroyed by a tornado, what then? I wonder if it's possible to buy a [LOW PRICE] homeowners policy that would only pay off if damage exceeds a certain amount like $30,000 - $50,000? My policy comes up for renewal in January. At that time, I'll check with my insurance company.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
you said you paid for a year, so did they ultimately decide to cover you?
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Yes, they did cover us. We're not paying $12K a year like our neighbor's friend but it's not great either, they're charging us about $3,500 a year but that' s the only company we could get to cover us and only because we already had our auto ins. with them.

A friend keeps telling me we should try to get insured through USAA since my dad, my stepdad and my brother were all in the military. However, you can't get USAA through a sibling; I could only get USAA through my stepdad if he approved and he's dead; and I could only get USAA through my dad if he had had a policy with them.

And my brother had all of Dad's records and those all got burned up in the Camp Fire so I'll have to figure out some way to see if he had a policy; I think I'm going to have to call USAA and see if they'll check for me. (I already looked at their website and couldn't see a way to do that online so I'll have to call.)

Since I'm still getting over strep and Covid, just haven't had the strength to try to deal with it yet.
 
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My home insurance is through AAA (bundled with auto). The recent renewal was $1448/yr, a $180 increase over last year. We also carry earthquake insurance, another $1867 this year, a $233 increase over last year.

So $3315 for a year's coverage. Note: we live in a low fire and flood risk area.

Online real estate sites estimate the market value of my home to be $1.2 million. Doing the math shows my insurance premiums come in at approx 3.3% of the home's value, which is pretty much par.
 
StarSong said:
My home insurance is through AAA (bundled with auto). The recent renewal was $1448/yr, a $180 increase over last year. We also carry earthquake insurance, another $1867 this year, a $233 increase over last year.

So $3315 for a year's coverage. Note: we live in a low fire and flood risk area.

Online real estate sites estimate the market value of my home to be $1.2 million. Doing the math shows my insurance premiums come in at approx 3.3% of the home's value, which is pretty much par.
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I gave your post a "wow" because my home is only valued in the $250,000 range, but my homeowner's insurance (bundled with auto) is $3276 this year. I don't carry earthquake insurance, as that would be a very rare occurence in my area.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
I gave your post a "wow" because my home is only valued in the $250,000 range, but my homeowner's insurance (bundled with auto) is $3276 this year. I don't carry earthquake insurance, as that would be a very rare occurrence in my area.
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Wow from me! Are you in a high risk area?

Edited to ask, does that $3276 include auto insurance? I stripped out our vehicle insurance before citing our homeowner insurance rates.
 
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StarSong said:
Wow from me! Are you in a high risk area?

Edited to ask, does that $3276 include auto insurance? I stripped out our vehicle insurance before citing our homeowner insurance rates.
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No high risks here - not even flooding. My auto is a separate $1272 per year.

Edited to add:
Yes, I get what you were doing about the part in bold. I already got other quotes using he same tactic. I could have fared slightly better premium wise by staying with the former insurance company I had, but they went to a 2% deductible (as opposed to the 1% I now have) which means a higher pay out on a potential claim.
 
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outlander said:
Conventional homes are becoming more of a financial liability than they are worth. Best to find an alternative way of living.
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I agree about conventional homes but wonder what you mean about alternative ways of living, like the kind of house, what it's made out of? (There was a trend here for a while about steel-framed houses which I guess burn up less than wood-framed; I don't know if they're still doing that.)

Or do you mean no fixed house at all? (Not arguing; just curious; I'd never be able to live alternatively; my husband adores this house but I do daydream about other ways.)

I saw a movie recently where a cut-throat real estate developer who had basically stolen a house from a young man told him, "Don't be sentimental about houses, kid. All houses are just boxes to keep your stuff in; you got big houses, smaller houses, but they're all just boxes." (That line was basically stolen from George Carlin who said, I think it was back in the 90s, something like, "Houses are just boxes to keep your sh*t in." That George, lol.)
 
@officerripley

Tiny homes, cabins, cottages, ect. They have been somewhat commercialized and some of them cost almost as much as a regular home :(

But things like metal Arched Cabins, a storage shed with metal sidings and roof, Quonset huts are still very affordable.

They can be put up for $10k including insulation and interior finish. Being very spartan and thrifty even less, of course if you want fancy and premium it can easily go higher.

Seeing how a lot of home insurance premiums are going well into the hundreds per month, you could drop the rip off coverage and save the premium to replace your tiny home should the need arise. In a few years you could save enough money to replace your tiny home, and keep replacing it every couple of years if you had horribly bad luck. But more than likely you will come out way ahead financially even with a replacement cost or two.

Over the last 6 years I have lived in two converted sheds and two minimal efficiency apartments.
The most difficult part was downsizing my belongings and getting rid of a bunch of stuff that I didn't really need.

It is so much less stressful to let go of all that extra stuff you don't really need. Getting used to a small footprint is much easier than I thought.

I never want to go back to supporting a full sized house, which is both mentally and financially challenging. Having to make maintaining a house your biggest priority is not how I want to live, there are much better things in life to do;)
 
Rossana said:
It is very difficult to find insurance here in Florida. It is such a problem that it has completely slowed down the real estate market.
There has been multiple discussions on the Nextdoor app. whereas people received a letter from their insurance company telling them that they will no longer be able to insure them. People would find another company to insure them (if at all possible) at a reasonable price only to see those rates going up drastically the following year. It does not matter if you have made a claim or not!
One of our friends lives in Fort Lauderdale. His insurance for the year came to $10,000 two years ago. He decided to drop insurance all together. He owns his home.
So far, we have been lucky with ours.
Our daughter lived through a Category 5 hurricane back in 2018. She had damage to her house. The insurance paid but that company bailed out of Florida along with others after that. She was lucky to find another one to cover her home and cars.
Insurance companies make deals with politicians here in Florida.
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Yes, I have a good friend who lives in Miami and his house is actually one of the few in the neighborhood that is just over the line from being flood-prone. He has lived in his small 2BR/2 Bath for over 30 years, and his homeowner's insurance is now over $10,000! He can't afford it anymore so he is without insurance, which is a very precarious place to be living near the water in Miami. :( I think his property taxes are around $4,000.

Ours is the reverse. Our property taxes increased to over $11,000 a few years ago but are now frozen at $10,400 per year, and that's with homestead exemption and being over 65. Our homeowner's insurance is $4,500. Our neighbors were selling at ungodly prices a couple of years ago. Now the house next door has been on the market for a month and they've already dropped the price. I'm hoping this will bring both property taxes and homeowner's insurance down eventually.
 
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Wow! to your Miami friend's predicament, @seadoug. I've been reading articles recently describing similar situations. Some homes in high-risk areas are declined by all/most insurance companies or the premiums are so high and coverage so low that the homes are all but unsaleable when current owners put them on the market.

That's already happening in wildfire prone areas of California, leaving homeowners with the sole option of a bare-bones state plan with offer skimpy benefits.
 
NYT 11/19/2025-

"New research shared with The New York Times estimates the extent to which rising home insurance premiums, driven higher by climate change, are cascading into the broader real estate market and eating into home values in the most disaster-prone areas.

The study, which analyzed tens of millions of housing payments through 2024 to understand where insurance costs have risen most, offers first-of-its-kind insight into the way rising insurance rates are affecting home values.

Since 2018, a financial shock in the home insurance market has meant that homes in the ZIP codes most exposed to hurricanes and wildfires would sell for an average of $43,900 less than they would otherwise, the research found. They include coastal towns in Louisiana and low-lying areas in Florida.

Changes in an under-the-radar part of the insurance market, known as reinsurance, have helped to drive this trend. Insurance companies purchase reinsurance to help limit their exposure when a catastrophe hits. Over the past several years, global reinsurance companies have had what the researchers call a “climate epiphany” and have roughly doubled the rates they charge home insurance providers."
 
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