If you live in an area with a lower crime rate you’ll notice a lower insurance rate compared to a home across town in an area prone to theft and reports of break-ins.  Below are the average annual premiums for homeowners insurance by state.  These premiums were averages taken from 2008 records.  As we come across more recent data we will add it to the recent column.

Average Cost Of Home Insurance By State

What Does My Home Insurance Policy Cover?

In most cases you’ll find a home policy to be cheap if you consider the amount of coverage you receive with a standard HO3 policy. Not only are you protecting the value of the home you live in, a standard policy also covers the contents inside. You’ll also receive coverage for other structures on your property.

A standard HO3 homeowners policy will also cover you and your family members from liability claims. If your child walks the family pet and that pet gets off the leash and bites someone – your insured! You can learn more about the specifics of what homeowners insurance covers. You’ll find several benefits to the coverage you receive with a standard homeowners insurance policy.

Coverage (A): Dwelling

Coverage (A) protects the home itself and anything attached to the home. Generally, your homeowners insurance policy will pay up to the policy limit in the event of damages caused by fire and storms. Tornadoes, hurricanes and other natural disasters may be covered depending on the company and policy. In some areas you may need a separate policy for additional coverage from natural disaster.

Coverage (B): Other Structures

Coverage (B) provides protection for other structures around the property. These structures must not be attached, such as an unattached garage, shed, storage room, etc. Coverage limit is based on a percentage of the coverage A limits.

Coverage (C): Unscheduled Personal Property

This part of your homeowners policy covers damage to your personal items you own. Most home policies limit coverage for personal property up to 75% of the coverage A limit. So if your policy provides $100,000 in coverage for the dwelling, you can have up to $75,000 in personal property coverage. Certain policies may only cover the depreciated value of these items so keep this in mind. Some policies will provide replacement cost coverage.

Coverage (D): Loss of Use

Coverage (D) makes for a great addition to any home policy. This coverage reimburses you for the additional expense you incur while your home remains uninhabitable due to a covered loss. While your home is being worked on, you may need to stay at a hotel which can be costly over the course of a week or two.

Coverage (E): Personal Liability

This is also a great benefit to having a home policy. Personal liability provides coverage in the event that another person brings forth a lawsuit against you. This may be from bodily injury caused or property damage that is the result from the homeowners negligence. Dog bites are one of the most common claims filed against homeowners. The insurance information institute estimates that one-third of all liability claims are brought on due to dog bites.

Coverage (F): Medical Payments

Medical payments will provide coverage for injury if a third party is injured by your personal property or while on your property. $5,000 is a common base limit used for medical payments coverage. This limit can be increased by the insured.

Certain items such as coins, firearms artwork and jewelry will have a specific limit of coverage based on the policy you select. Most companies provide up to $200 coverage for money (coins). If you have a rare collection it would be wise to add a rider to your policy. The rider is also known as Scheduled Personal Property which provides additional coverage for specific personal possessions.

Related Resources

How Much Is Homeowners Insurance
Home and Auto Insurance

What Will It Cost To Replace Your Home?

Insurance providers offer a variety of different home insurance packages, not all of these home policies offer replacement cost coverage on your property.  A replacement cost home insurance policy will help you bridge the gap to avoid having too little coverage in the future due to inflation in the event of a covered loss.

Also, with an actual cash value policy your insurance claim will be assessed at fair market value.  Some things that are covered by your home policy may have depreciated in value over the years so you may not receive enough from your insurance claim to cover or replace certain items that broke, got damaged or lost. By selecting a homeowners replacement value insurance policy, you’ll be in a safer position by having items, which are lost or destroyed, replaced with a like-kind item without much less worry about about the fair value of the item – as you would be a little more concerned with an actual cash value or ACV policy.

Most Agents will provide quotes for replacement cost home insurance policy.  To find the lowest home insurance policy be sure to comparison shop agents and major insurance companies.

Also be sure to compare quote offers between both stand-alone home insurance policies and auto + home packages.  By comparing all of your options, finding a the cheapest homeowners insurance solutions is within your reach.

Foremost shares how this new package provides for a great benefit to it’s customers and the intention is to offer enhanced coverage option and quality coverage at a competitive price. By allowing customers to “built their own package” of insurance coverage, the program is more flexible for those who want a custom policy. Customers also have the option of simply selecting the Platinum Package which comes with great coverage as well as an additional discount.

Highlights of the Landlord Platinum Package:

• (RC) Replacement Cost on the Dwelling
• $3,000 of Personal Property coverage
• Coverage for 10% Loss of Rents
• $300,000 Premises Liability, this includes (PI) Personal Injury
• Coverage For Other Structures: 10% up to $10,000
• The Platinum Endorsement offers Additional enhancements

Property owners who select the Land Lord Platinum Package will also get a 6% insurance discount on Dwelling and personal property premiums.

Landlord Platinum Package Availability:
(Available only on Dwelling Fire Three policies.)

Dismemberment of an arm or leg could cost several hundred thousand for hospitalization alone. Then you have to think, can this person carry on their job after recovery. If not, who’s going to pay for the loss of income? Another worse case scenario; what if the other driver dies leaving a family to go on without him or her and without a monthly income?

These are the worse case scenarios which do happen every day.

If you choose to buy the best insurance coverage to protect your assets, you may want to also insure yourself with an umbrella policy. Umbrellas are much more affordable than you may think and you get a huge amount of coverage so you no longer have to worry about losing everything you’ve worked so hard earning.

So what exactly is an umbrella policy?

The umbrella insurance is a liability insurance policy that will protect both the Insured’s assets and future income above and beyond the standard limits of the policy holders auto liability coverage. This coverage may also fill in gaps where your standard auto policy does not cover. Generally an umbrella policy is sold in increments on one million dollars. Not only will it help cover auto liability claims but can also cover homeowner claims as well, hence the term umbrella (multiple lines of insurance under the umbrella).

For more complete protection, in regards to umbrellas, there are limit requirements prior to being able to buy an umbrella policy. These limits may be a little different from one insurance company to the next.

For example, an insurance carrier may require you carry minimum $250,000/$500,000 of (BI) bodily injury coverage on your auto liability limits before becoming eligible to purchase an umbrella policy.

Our insurance quote system supports both local rate comparisons and national rate comparisons. We recommend you work with a local agent for coverage with higher than average limits of liability. To get the best coverage for the most competitive price our system will allow you started by comparing auto insurance quotes between 4 to 5 local insurance agents. To begin your quote simply enter your zip-code above and follow our simple online quote form.

In many cases, sewer backup coverage is an additional endorsement you must select at the time you purchase your homeowners insurance policy. It may cost as little as $35 per year and that’s money well spent if you should ever experience this unfortunate risk. Provided on the right is a diagram which makes it easy to see how this can happen to your home during a bad rain storm.

A couple ways to prevent a sewer backup:

Backup Balance Valves:

A new backup valve known as a “balanced valve” first designed by Dino DelVecchio, will bring backup water within the sewer pipes to a halt. Dino first designed this after his basement flooded, never expecting this device to become such a popular solution for flood control. Basically, with this device installed, floats will force the valve closed during rain storms. A balanced valve can be installed in a manhole in your yard so that there will be no concerns over pipes busting underneath your basement. With it being installed in the yard the makes it the disruptive during the construction phase.

The Floor Drain Plug:

With a floor drain plug you can plug the first opening in the basement were the sewer backup could occur. This is the lowest drain opening within your home. Commercial grade plugs are available for purchase and you may place them under the grate inside the drain. Bolted metal ends cause the rubber gasket to expand and seal the potential entry of sewer backup. One drawback is this plug will do the same for water trying to escape out of the home in the event of a laundry overflow. Some homeowners use plugs only during the rainy season. You can find a plug for about $10 at your local hardware store.

Sewer Clean-outs:

If currently don’t have a clean-out connected to your sewer system, consider getting one installed. A cleanout will allow access to help you clear any sort of blockage in the line.

Hurricane Irene Floods Homes

The Insurance Information Institute did a poll this year and determined that 14% of homeowners in the U.S have flood insurance.

The most common type of flooding that is covered by a standard homeowners insurance policy is flooding from a busted pipe, keyword busted; slow leaks that cause damage often are not covered as insurance companies will argue the cause of water damage was due to maintenance that should have been kept up with by the homeowners, even though sometimes the slow leak is somewhere inside a wall where you could have no idea a leak actually exists.

Here’s some information on how insurance companies handle a fallen tree or branch. Policies vary by company so the information below is general information regarding fallen trees.

• If a tree on your own property falls on your neighbor’s house and causes damage, it will be your neighbor who will need to file a claim with their homeowners insurance. Many people assume it’s the fault of the homeowner from who the tree belongs. The only way this could possibly be the fault of the homeowner is if the tree was dead and expecting to fall – where the damages could have been avoided.



• If a tree happens to fall on your vehicle or the neighbor’s vehicle then the vehicle owners auto policy may cover the damage if the policy was written with comprehensive coverage. Comprehensive coverage pays for damages, other than collision, to your vehicle including hail, theft and in this case fallen trees. A deductible will need to be paid first prior to filing a claim.
• If a tree or large branch falls but causes no damage, although some companies may provide coverage for removal, generally homeowners insurance will not pay for the removal of the tree. If there was damage to your home or a detached structure the homeowners policy would cover both the damage and the removal of the tree.

Do you need a homeowners insurance quote? We provide a way to compare up to 8 insurance quotes from auto and home insurance. Enter your zip above and see how much you can save on home insurance.

Find Better Auto and Home Insurance For Less

Companies will often sell you the idea that if you package your policies with their company, they’ll provide in return a discount – which they will.  I’ve stood behind this fact for years and in many cases it turned out to be the best way to buy and save on auto and home insurance.  However, in some cases its best to put your auto insurance with one company and your home with another, here’s why…

Take a close look at this table and you’ll begin to see exactly what I’m talking about…  By the way, when you’re comparing quotes, setting up a table like this on paper is very helpful.

John Example’s insurance quotes: Please note, these are merely examples…

Company Name               Auto Alone            Home Alone                    Discounted Multi-line Policy Price

Travelers                                    $675                            $320                                 $945

The Hartford                              $400                            $620                                 $970

Progressive                               $850                            $600                                $1350

Statefarm                                   $700                            $500                                $1150

With John packaging his auto and home with Travelers he saves $50 with the multi-line insurance discount.  However, as you can see, if John selects the auto insurance with The Hartford and the Home with the Traveler, without the multi-line discount he still only pays $400 for auto and $320 for his home totaling $720.00.  If John is one for wanting more coverage this works great.  Now he has more money to increase limits of liability to his auto insurance or add endorsements to his home policy.

These figures above are provided as an example only.  If you want to compare your options the best way is to first get your auto and home quote and then ask for the quotes individually without the multi-line discount applied.  Then just like its showed above, list the company names with the amounts for auto alone, home alone and then both packaged.  This way you can determine if bundling up with one company is the absolute best choice for you.

More Things To Consider When You Need To Buy Homeowners Insurance

Personal Property Coverage

Personal property coverage is included on all standard home insurance policies.  The question that comes to mind is how much personal property coverage is needed.  Generally, personal property coverage limits are calculated off of a percentage of the coverage A, the primary dwelling limits.  This calculation could be anywhere between 50% to 75% of the Dwelling coverage  In many cases personal property limits may be as much as $100,000 or more.  How much property do you have?  You may be paying for too much or too little coverage.  Before accepting the calculated personal property limits you may want to take an inventory of the personal property in your home.  With an inventory you’ll have a better idea as to how much personal property coverage you need to insure and you’ll also have a written record in case a loss should ever occur.

One thing to keep in consideration is the fact that some property has special limits.  Regardless of the limits of your personal property coverage, certain items will only be covered to special limit set by the insurance company.  Below is an example of some items with special limits. Please note, these limits depend on the insurance company that provides the home insurance quote.

$500 – Animals, Birds and Fish

$500 – Money, Travelers Checks

$1,000 – Jewelry, Watches

$2,000 – Trailers and Campers

$2,000 – Watercraft

$2,000 – Manuscripts

$2,500 – Guns and Accessories

$5,000 – Silverware, Goldware and Tea Sets

So what happens if you have $20,000 worth of jewelry?  Here’s where insurance riders come in.  If you need coverage for a specific item that isn’t fully covered by your home policy, most insurance companies offer special endorsements to help cover that specific piece of property.

Changing Your Home Insurance Company, Getting Your Home Insurance Refund

Changing insurance companies for Homeowners coverage is much easier than you may think.  You may also receive a refund if you have any unearned premium left on your current Homeowners policy.  If you bought a home 6 months ago, a portion of your closing costs paid for an annual Homeowners policy which may have cost $600.  If you replace that policy with a new policy 6 months prior to your renewal date, there will be $300 of un-earned insurance premium which the company owes you.  You can purchase a new policy on a monthly, bi-annual or annual basis.

If you find a homeowners insurance policy for 2 payments of $200, you can make the first payment of $200 now and a second payment 6 months from now.  So the bottom line is you’ll pay $200 now and receive a $300 refund check from your original insurer.  Also, when it comes time to buy the insurance make sure the company knows you want the refund check sent to you, otherwise it may be sent to credit the account with the mortgage company.

I believe with knowing this, those who live in states with higher than average homeowners insurance can save greatly.  According to a recent study, Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Florida and Mississippi have the most expensive homeowners insurance premiums.  These states are followed by DC, California, Kansas, Colorado and Alaska.  It has also been found that Drivers in DC, New Jersey, New York, Florida, Massachusetts and Louisiana spend the most on auto insurance.

So in conclusion, those dealing with higher than average auto and home insurance rates in Florida, NY, DC and Louisiana should really consider quoting their auto and home and carefully reviewing what the best choice is – combining two policies with the same company or buying two separate policies from two different insurance companies.

We hope this ultimate guide to buying auto and homeowners coverage helps save you money and increase coverage all at the same time.  Our resource is built to help you get cheap insurance rates. Learn more about how you can get cheaper car insurance rates.

Thank you for visiting and we hope to help you more with comparing insurance quotes from some of the best auto and home insurance companies in the country.

How It Works:

Let’s say 6 months ago you purchased a homeowners policy for $650 a year. What happens if you replace that insurance with a new policy prior to the renewal date. Well if you replace this particular policy 6 months prior to the renewal date, the insurance company owes you the unearned premium which will be in the ball park of $325.

Be Aware Of Early Cancellation Fees:

There may be an early cancellation fee which is why you should check your existing policy. Some companies don’t charge a cancellation fee while others may charge as much as $50 (sometimes more). This is also known as a “short rate” premium refund.

Refunds & Savings:

If you can find the same amount of coverage for $400 a year you may be able to purchase your new policy with a quarterly payment schedule. This means your first payment may be $100 to get this policy in force while your prior company makes out a check for nearly $325. For 6 months of coverage with the new Insurance company, you would of paid only $200 versus the full $325 with your prior Carrier. The same amount of savings will go for the following 6 months as well.

By taking the time to review your homeowners insurance options, you may find yourself saving more money in the long run while also receiving refund check within days.

Note: Remember to check your existing policy to be sure you fully understand the details regarding early cancellation and coverage prior to making any changes. Also be sure the refund check goes to you and not the mortgage company.

Low-Insurance.org works great for those who want to compare insurance quotes between local companies. You may also want to consider getting an auto & home insurance quote to save with the multi-policy discount.