American homeowners paid 24% more for insurance in 2024 than they did in 2021, according to research published this month by the Consumer Federation of America — an increase well ahead of general inflation over the same stretch.
The finding is not surprising on its own. What makes the report worth reading is its second argument: nobody in the federal government is systematically tracking this.
The Numbers
CFA’s analysis covers roughly 90% of the US homeowners market, assembled from state-level rate filings and premium data because no single national dataset exists.
The headline figures:
- Average annual premiums rose 24% between 2021 and 2024
- The increase substantially outpaced the roughly 13% rise in general consumer prices over the same period
- Increases were not evenly distributed — some states saw premiums rise by more than half, while others were close to flat
The geographic spread is the part that gets lost in national averages. A homeowner in a low-catastrophe state has experienced a very different market from one in Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma or coastal Texas.
Why There Is No Federal Data
Insurance is regulated at state level in the United States. There is no equivalent of the mortgage market’s HMDA data for property insurance — no requirement that carriers report premiums, non-renewals or coverage gaps into a single national database.
The Federal Insurance Office attempted to collect exactly this in 2023 and 2024, working through state regulators. CFA’s report argues the resulting picture remains incomplete, and that the absence of consistent data makes it genuinely difficult to answer basic questions like which communities are losing access to coverage and how fast.
That matters beyond statistics. Homeowners insurance is a condition of nearly every mortgage. When it becomes unaffordable or unavailable, the effect lands on housing markets, property values and municipal tax bases — and it does so before anyone has measured it.
What Is Driving the Increases
Four things, in roughly this order:
- Reinsurance costs. The price insurers pay to insure themselves rose sharply after 2022 and has stayed elevated. That cost flows directly into primary premiums.
- Rebuild costs. Construction materials and labour rose faster than headline inflation. A policy written on 2019 rebuild assumptions was badly underpriced by 2023.
- Severe convective storms. Hail and wind — not hurricanes — have driven a growing share of insured losses, and they hit states that historically thought of themselves as low-risk.
- Non-weather claims. Water damage and litigation costs continue to climb in specific states.
What Homeowners Can Actually Do
The levers are limited, but they are real:
- Raise your deductible deliberately. Moving from $1,000 to $2,500 typically cuts the premium meaningfully. Only do it if you can absorb the difference in cash.
- Check your dwelling coverage against current rebuild cost, not market value. Many policies are simultaneously over-insured on the land and under-insured on the structure.
- Ask what mitigation discounts exist in your state. Roof age, impact-rated shingles, water shutoff devices and wind mitigation inspections all move rates in states that recognise them, and the discounts are frequently unclaimed.
- Shop at every renewal. Carrier appetite now changes yearly. The insurer that was cheapest for your ZIP code two years ago may have re-priced out of it entirely.
The market is not going back to 2019 pricing. The realistic goal is to make sure you are not paying a legacy rate at a carrier that no longer wants your business.
See our current home insurance comparison for how the major carriers price against each other.