However, CFA and the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG) said the data for Arizona is even more stark. On average, CFA found that Arizonans are experiencing double the national average in the cost of homeowners insurance premiums, with an increase of more than $700 in a three-year time span. Arizona PIRG warned that in parts of Arizona, the threat of a wildfire may soon be making it even more expensive to maintain or even obtain private coverage.
“The skyrocketing price of insurance premiums is deepening the housing crisis – and homeowners across the country are feeling the strain,” said CFA’s Director of Housing Sharon Cornelissen, a lead author of the new report, “Overburdened: The Dramatic Increase in Homeowners Insurance Premiums and its Impacts on American Homeowners”.
In 2024, typical homeowners across the country paid $3,303 per year for homeowners’ insurance. Additional data from the report include:
- Premiums increased in 95% of U.S. ZIP codes, and consumers in one-third of ZIP codes saw their premiums rise by more than 30%.
- The sharpest increases were found in Utah (59% jump in premiums), Illinois (50%), Arizona (48%), and Pennsylvania (44%).
- The most expensive states in which to insure a home are Florida, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Kentucky, and Nebraska.
“Skyrocketing double-digit increases in homeowners’ insurance premiums and the potential inability to find adequate insurance, particularly in areas prone to wildfire, have the potential to wreak havoc on household budgets in Arizona,” stated Diane E. Brown, Executive Director of Arizona PIRG. “To protect consumers, policymakers should reduce barriers to coverage and ensure homeowners insurance policies are reasonable.”
CFA calls on lawmakers and regulators to require insurance companies to publicly disclose all transactions with consumers in ways that mirror the detailed data reporting of mortgage applications. Mortgage lenders have been required to report detailed mortgage data annually under the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act (HMDA) since 1975. While the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) collected limited data about homeowners insurance last year, the Federal Insurance Office (FIO) has only made some of that data public.
“American homeowners are facing unprecedented premium hikes,” said Douglas Heller, CFA’s Director of Insurance. “But the insurance commissioners and lawmakers we depend upon to ensure that this critical coverage is available and affordable have not done enough to collect, let alone make public, the data from insurance companies that are needed to effectively target solutions to this crisis and hold bad actors accountable.”
“Overburdened” builds on prior CFA research (“EXPOSED: A Report on 1.6 Trillion Dollars of Uninsured American Homes”) using American Housing Survey data that found more than six million homes are uninsured across the country.
