The national home insurance rate shock is over. What replaces it is a patchwork.
Approved homeowners rate changes across the US have fallen to an effective 1.8% through July 2026, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data reported by Carrier Management on August 14. That follows 13.6% in 2024 and 6.3% in 2025, the two years in which carriers pushed through the increases they said they needed to catch up with inflation in rebuilding costs and a run of catastrophe losses.
The catch-up is finished, nationally
S&P’s analysts describe the market as entering a “fragmented phase.” Their summary: the 2026 cycle “belongs to a fragmented, state-by-state answer set built on localized catastrophe experience, regulatory realization, underwriting appetite and earned performance rather than on a uniform national resolution.”
Two states show how sharp the turn has been. Minnesota approved an average 17.8% increase in 2025 and just 1.6% so far in 2026. Colorado went from 16.6% to 0.8%. Both had absorbed hail-driven losses that carriers priced in during the catch-up years.
A lighter 2026 catastrophe season so far has also reduced the pressure for across-the-board increases. North Carolina is one of the states still seeing rate increases this year.
What carriers are doing instead of raising rates
The report notes that insurers are leaning on tools other than headline rate. Higher wind and hail deductibles, tiering by roof age and property condition, and tighter risk selection let a carrier improve results without filing a rate increase that a regulator can reject. For a homeowner, that means the premium may hold flat while the policy quietly covers less, or while a renewal offer arrives with a percentage deductible that did not exist last year.
What it means for your renewal
- If your state’s approved change is near zero, a renewal increase well above that is worth a phone call and two competing quotes.
- Check the deductible line, not just the premium. A shift from a flat $1,000 to 2% of dwelling coverage on a $400,000 home is a $7,000 difference in what you pay before the insurer does.
- Florida’s regulator reported average premiums falling in 51 of 67 counties in the first half of 2026, so shopping there now has a better chance of paying off than at any point in the last four years.
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