Home insurance premiums are set to rise for a fifth straight year in 2026 as insurers grapple with losses from extreme weather and high rebuilding costs.
The average annual premium is projected to increase 4% to about $3,057 this year, after jumping 12% in 2025, according to Insurify, an online insurance comparison site. The expected gain follows several years of steep growth in rates. Since 2021, premiums have climbed 46%, roughly three times as much as inflation, Insurify said.
The forecasts are in line with other recent estimates. A report released Tuesday by Lending Tree, an online mortgage comparison site, found home insurance price increases were outpacing both inflation and income growth. In a separate analysis last year, the Consumer Federation of America said premiums rose in 95% of ZIP Codes between 2021 and 2024. Over that period, the cost of coverage for a typical homeowner increased by $648 on average.
There is a growing body of research connecting extreme weather, exacerbated by climate change, to insurance price increases. A U.S. Treasury Department analysis of more that 243 million home policies, released in January 2025, concluded that communities routinely affected by severe weather were paying substantially more than those that were not.
No hurricane made landfall in the U.S. in 2025, but Matt Brannon of Insurify pointed to the toll from severe convective storms, which can produce tornadoes, hail and destructive winds. Insured losses from such storms have exceeded $42 billion for three years running, an amount significantly higher than the 10-year average, according to reinsurer Munich Re.
Those events have hit the middle of the country especially hard. In 2025, premiums jumped by more than 20% in six states, including Minnesota (+34%), Colorado (+33%), Nebraska (+25%) and Oklahoma (+24%). Florida remains by far the most expensive state to buy homeowners insurance, with the average premium set to approach $8,500, more than double the national average.
Insurify expects the biggest price increases this year in California, following the devastation caused by the Los Angeles wildfires.
Rising costs are forcing households to make difficult choices. More than half of homeowners surveyed by Insurify said they made financial sacrifices to afford coverage and nearly three in 10 said they would drop coverage altogether if they could.
Kaufman writes for Bloomberg.
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