Benchmark your homeowners premium by state, home value and the levers that move it
| Lever | Typical premium impact |
|---|
Homeowners insurance has quietly become one of the fastest-inflating bills in America — up 30–60% in many states since 2020, with Florida and Louisiana premiums tripling. That makes benchmarking your quote (or your escrow's renewal) genuinely valuable: this estimator scales real state-level averages to your dwelling coverage and rating factors, producing the fair-quote range that tells you whether to sign or shop.
| Factor | Weight | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Location (state → ZIP) | The biggest | Hurricane, hail and wildfire exposure drive 5× spreads between states |
| Dwelling coverage | Linear-ish | Rebuild cost, not market value — the land survives every peril |
| Roof age & material | Huge in hail states | 15+ year roofs face surcharges, ACV-only coverage, or non-renewal |
| Credit-based insurance score | Up to 2× swing | Banned as a factor in CA, MD, MA — enormous everywhere else |
| Deductible & claims history | Meaningful | Each claim in 5 years: +20–40%; small claims cost more than they pay |
Industry-wide repricing: construction-cost inflation, reinsurance costs doubling, and disaster losses get spread across everyone. It's also why shopping now beats loyalty — new-customer pricing hasn't absorbed your carrier's book-wide increase.
No — rebuild cost only. In expensive-land markets (coastal CA), rebuild is far below market; in cheap-land markets, sometimes above. Insuring the land is the most common over-payment; underinsuring the structure post-inflation is the most dangerous gap.
Only with identical coverage: match dwelling amount, deductibles (including wind %), replacement-cost contents, and endorsements line-by-line. Cheap quotes often hide ACV roofs and stripped water coverage — the fair-range floor exists for a reason.
Typically 20–40% for 3–5 years, and multiple claims risk non-renewal. The math: file for the big losses insurance exists for; self-fund anything within ~2× your deductible.
State FAIR plans and last-resort insurers (Citizens in FL, CA FAIR Plan) provide basic coverage; independent agents know which private carriers still write your ZIP. Mitigation (roof straps, defensible space) increasingly unlocks private options.
Homeowners policies cap business property (~$2,500) and exclude business liability. A home-business endorsement or in-home business policy runs $100–500/yr — see the Business Liability tool for the standalone version.
Yes — every figure computes locally in your browser.
Pull your declarations page once a year, benchmark it here, and shop when the number sits above the fair range. In the current market, an hour of quotes is the highest-paid hour in home ownership.