Home Insurance Cost by State, 2026

What the spread actually tells you

A 7-fold gap between the most and least expensive state is larger than the gap in almost any other homeownership cost, including property tax. It exists because premiums track what carriers actually pay out, and catastrophe exposure is wildly uneven across the country. Hurricane and wind risk dominates the Gulf and Southeast. Hail and severe convective storms drive the Plains states — which is why Oklahoma, Nebraska and Kansas sit near the top of a list most people expect to be all coastal. Wildfire is reshaping the West.

The corollary is that a state average is a weak predictor of your own premium. Coastal counties inside a single state routinely price well above the inland average for the same state, and — separately from location — your own roof age and claims history move the number further than most state-level differences do. We do not hold trusted county-level premium data to publish a specific multiplier for the coastal/inland gap, so treat it as directionally large rather than a fixed ratio; the way to size it for your own address is to get an actual quote. Run your own numbers →

How much coverage do you actually need?

Every figure on this page is standardized at $300,000 in dwelling coverage so the state comparison is apples-to-apples — it is not a recommendation for your own policy. The number you actually need is your home's rebuild cost: what a contractor would charge to reconstruct the structure at current local labor and material prices, which is usually different from — and often higher than — the price you paid or the home's market value, since market value includes land and lot location that do not need rebuilding. Insurers and many contractors estimate rebuild cost from square footage, local construction pricing, and the home's finish level; ask your insurer or an appraiser for that specific number rather than assuming it equals your purchase price. Insuring below rebuild cost can trigger a coinsurance penalty that reduces every claim payout, not just a total loss — see “What can I do if premiums have become unaffordable” below before you cut coverage to save on premium.

One coverage gap catches first-time buyers specifically: a standard homeowners policy (HO-3) does not cover flood damage, including storm surge and heavy-rain flooding, regardless of state. Flood coverage is a separate policy, most commonly through the National Flood Insurance Program, and lenders require it only when the home sits in a FEMA-designated high-risk flood zone — but flooding outside those zones is common and, when it happens, uninsured. Check your specific address's flood-zone status before closing; see flood insurance for what it costs and when it is required.

Where price is no longer the main problem

In some states the harder issue is availability rather than cost. Where major carriers have stopped writing new business, the published average understates the situation: it reflects policies that exist, not the quotes a new buyer can actually obtain. In those markets homeowners face fewer options, stricter roof and inspection requirements, and often the state insurer of last resort.

• Florida — $7,136/yr, backstop: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
• California — $1,616/yr, backstop: California FAIR Plan

Why published national averages disagree

You will see the 2026 national average quoted anywhere from roughly $1,600 to $3,100. Those are not competing estimates of the same quantity — they measure different things, and the difference is entirely methodological. We list them separately rather than averaging them into a figure that answers none of the questions.

• NAIC Homeowners Insurance Report (Data for 2022, published May 2025) — $1,569. The official regulator dataset. Reflects policies actually sold at whatever coverage buyers chose, not a standardized quote, which is why the level is far below quote-based studies. Copyright NAIC; linked, not reproduced.
• LendingTree — State of Home Insurance 2026 (published June 2026) — $2,395. Standardized at $350,000 dwelling with a $1,000 deductible. Reports a 46.8% cumulative increase over 2020–2025, and puts Oklahoma highest and Hawaii lowest.
• Bankrate — Homeowners insurance cost (2026) — $2,424. Standardized at $300,000 dwelling, quoted for good credit. Bankrate's own credit-tier spread runs to $5,122 for poor credit on identical coverage.
• Insurify — Home Insurance Price Projections (published March 2026) — $3,057. Uses each state's typical home value rather than a fixed coverage amount, so expensive states carry more weight and the national figure runs higher. Reports 2025 actual of $2,948 and projects 2026 at $3,057, a fifth consecutive annual increase.

This matters for rankings too, not just levels. A study standardizing on a fixed coverage amount and one weighting by each state's actual home values will disagree about which state is most expensive — so a “most expensive state” figure taken from one study and a “cheapest state” figure taken from another do not belong in the same sentence. Every number in our table above comes from a single dataset, which is what makes the comparison valid.

How much premiums have risen

Two independent estimates land near the same figure over slightly different windows. LendingTree, working from regulator rate-change filings, reports a cumulative increase of about 46.8% across 2020–2025. Insurify separately reports roughly 46% since 2021 and projects 2026 as a fifth consecutive annual increase. Those are different statistics over different baselines that happen to land close together — worth citing individually rather than treating as a single consensus number.

The causes are consistent across sources: rebuild costs rose faster than general inflation, severe-weather losses grew — with hail and wind, not headline hurricanes, doing much of the damage — and reinsurance repriced hard, passing straight through to policyholders.

Methodology and honest limitations

The premium column is third-party data, reproduced with attribution, not RealCostIQ original research. Rank and the comparison to the national average are computed by us from that same set, so they are internally consistent with it.

• No year-over-year column. We do not hold a per-state time series we trust enough to publish one. Rather than ship a column of plausible-looking numbers, we have left it out and cited the national trend figures above to their own sources.
• The NAIC data is linked, not reproduced. The regulator's own report is the authoritative per-state source, but it is copyright NAIC and explicitly restricts redistribution, and its latest edition covers 2022. We link it as a reference point.
• State averages hide enormous within-state variance. County-level differences frequently exceed the difference between states.
• Availability is not captured by price. In markets where carriers have withdrawn, the average reflects existing policies rather than what a new buyer can obtain.

Citing this page

This table is free to cite and reuse with attribution and a link back to this page. If you are quoting a specific premium figure, please also credit the underlying source, Insurance.com — Average homeowners insurance rates by state (Rate Analysis 2026).

Related tools and guides

• Home Insurance Cost Calculator — your own estimate, with every factor shown
• Mortgage Calculator — fold the premium into your full monthly payment (principal, interest, taxes, and insurance — lenders call this PITI)
• Mortgage Affordability Calculator
• Home insurance costs by state — topic hub
• Flood insurance — separate policy, not covered by a standard HO-3
• All state homeowner guides