How Much Does Homeowners Insurance Cost in 2026?

Homeowners insurance costs $2,966 per year on average in the U.S. in 2026 — roughly $250 a month — with most homeowners paying $2,500–$3,500 a year depending on state, coverage, and credit. At the low end, Hawaii averages $601–$752 a year; at the high end, Florida runs $7,100–$9,400 a year, more than ten times as much. Those figures are for a standard HO-3 policy with around $300,000 in dwelling coverage and a $1,000 deductible. Browse our home finance cost guides for the other fixed costs of owning a home.

Homeowners Insurance Cost at a Glance

Homeowners Insurance Cost by State

Location is the single biggest price driver — more than the house itself. Insurers price on ZIP-code-level catastrophe risk: hurricanes, tornadoes, hail, wildfire, plus local rebuilding costs and crime rates. The result is a spread of more than 10x between the cheapest and most expensive states. Your lender requires coverage before funding the loan and collects the premium through monthly escrow, so this number lands directly on your mortgage closing paperwork and in every monthly payment.

Florida: $7,100–$9,400 a year, the national outlier

Florida homeowners pay roughly triple the national average — and the gap keeps widening, with 2026 premiums up about 7% from 2025. Hurricane exposure is the obvious driver, but the premium also bakes in expensive litigation around claims, high reinsurance costs that carriers pass through, and soaring rebuild prices along the coast. A Florida policy can cost $700+ a month, more than some car payments — and many buyers discover this only after going under contract.

Tornado Alley: $4,400–$5,500 a year across Oklahoma, Nebraska, Kansas, and Texas

Oklahoma ($5,010–$5,534), Nebraska ($4,620–$5,513), Kansas, and Texas sit in the second pricing tier thanks to hail and tornado losses — the most frequent severe-weather claims in the country. Hail is the quiet budget-killer here: a single storm season can produce multiple roof claims across a metro area, and carriers price the whole state for it. Texas adds hurricane exposure on the Gulf Coast on top of hail in the interior, which is why its average ($4,423–$4,582) runs high despite its size.

Low-risk states: $600–$1,500 a year in Hawaii, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Delaware

Hawaii ($601–$752) is the cheapest state in the country because it largely escapes the catastrophes that drive mainland pricing — no tornadoes, no hurricanes of mainland intensity, mild weather year-round. Vermont ($929–$1,087), New Hampshire ($1,002–$1,119), and Delaware ($1,091–$1,331) follow for the same reason: low disaster frequency plus modest rebuilding costs. Moving from Florida to Vermont can cut the annual bill by $8,000 or more for comparable coverage.

Homeowners Insurance Cost by Policy Type

The policy form decides what is covered and, to a smaller degree, what you pay. The HO-3 is the default for owner-occupied single-family homes — roughly 80% of U.S. homeowners carry one — but condos, rentals, and older or manufactured homes each have their own form and their own price band.

HO-3: $2,500–$3,500 a year, the standard policy

The HO-3 is the industry default: open-perils coverage on the dwelling (everything is covered unless explicitly excluded) and named-perils coverage on personal property (only the 16 listed perils). The national averages quoted in this article — $2,966 from carrier rate studies, $2,543 for $300,000 in dwelling coverage — are HO-3 figures. One boundary worth knowing: an HO-3 covers sudden, accidental damage — fire, wind, theft — while a home warranty covers wear-and-tear repairs on appliances and systems as they age out. They solve different problems.

HO-5: $80–$130 a year more than an equivalent HO-3

The HO-5 upgrades personal property to open-perils coverage and, crucially, pays claims at replacement cost instead of depreciated actual cash value. That is a meaningful difference: a five-year-old couch destroyed in a covered loss gets you a new couch under HO-5, but only its used value under a standard HO-3. National insurance filings put the HO-5 premium only $80–$130 a year above HO-3 — roughly $7–$11 a month — which makes it the value pick for homes with expensive furnishings, electronics, or collections.

HO-6: $400–$900 a year for condo insurance

Condo insurance is cheaper in absolute dollars ($510 a year on average) because the condo association’s master policy covers the building exterior and common areas — your HO-6 only insures the interior, your belongings, and liability. Florida ($1,035) and Texas ($830) run the highest HO-6 averages; Vermont ($230) and Maine ($290) the lowest. Mortgage lenders and most HOAs require it, and the price barely registers next to HOA dues.

HO-4: $170–$400 a year for renters insurance

Renters insurance covers only belongings, liability, and temporary living expenses — the landlord’s policy covers the structure — so it costs a fraction of homeowners insurance: about $23 a month nationally. It is the cheapest policy on this list and the most commonly skipped, which is a mistake at these prices. Deductibles typically run $500–$1,000, and bundling with auto insurance often nearly offsets the cost.

How your deductible reshapes the premium

The deductible is the fastest lever you control. 2026 rate-filing data shows exactly how the premium falls as the deductible rises:

Moving from $500 to $1,000 saves up to 25%; moving from $1,000 to $2,500 saves another 10–15%. The catch is liquidity: the deductible must be money you can actually produce the week after a disaster, not a number that looks good on paper.

Homeowners Insurance Cost Factors

Where you live

The dominant factor, full stop. Florida at $7,100–$9,400 versus Hawaii at $601–$752 is a 10x+ gap for the same dwelling coverage — driven by hurricane, tornado, hail, and wildfire exposure plus local rebuild costs. Even within a state, two ZIP codes a mile apart can differ by 30–100% based on coast proximity, flood zone, and distance to a fire station.

Dwelling coverage amount (rebuild cost)

Premiums scale with the cost to rebuild, not the market price — land is not insured. Published 2026 rate data: $300,000 in dwelling coverage averages $2,543 a year; $400,000 runs $2,490–$3,200; $500,000 runs $3,700–$4,800; $1,000,000 runs $6,400–$8,800. Pricing is not linear — larger homes get a slightly better per-dollar rate above $500,000 in coverage.

Credit-based insurance score

In most states, insurers use a credit-based score as a risk proxy, and the effect is enormous: excellent credit averages $2,151 a year while poor credit averages $7,136 on the same coverage profile — a $4,985 gap, larger than the entire national average premium. Poor credit costs roughly 72% more than good credit. California, Maryland, and Massachusetts prohibit the practice, so the factor does not apply there.

Deductible level

As the table above shows, a $500 deductible costs $3,719 a year versus $3,126 at a $2,000 deductible — a $593 annual swing for the same house and carrier. Going from $1,000 to $2,500 reliably saves 10–15% across insurers. This is the cheapest “discount” available, but only if you keep the deductible amount in savings.

Claims history

Each claim signals future claims, and insurers price it in. A five-plus-year claim-free record averages $3,467 a year; one claim in the past five years raises it to $4,019 (+16%); two claims push it to $4,483 — just over $1,000 more than the clean baseline. This is why experienced homeowners pay for sub-deductible repairs out of pocket: a small claim can cost more in premium increases than the payout was worth.

Home age and condition

Newer homes cost less to insure. Homes built since 2021 average $1,429 a year; homes built from 1971–1990 average $2,230 — a 56% gap. Older electrical, plumbing, and roofing raise both the odds and the severity of a claim. Updated systems, a roof under 10–15 years old, and modern building-code construction all pull the premium down; a roof past 15 years can push it up or trigger non-renewal in storm states.

Rebuilding costs and market trends

The premium follows construction economics. Rates are up more than 23% nationally over three years and roughly 46% cumulatively since 2021, driven by building-material and labor inflation, a run of billion-dollar weather disasters (23 in 2025 alone), and rising reinsurance costs that carriers pass to policyholders. In 2024 alone, average rates rose 10.4%, with 34 states seeing double-digit increases.

Additional Homeowners Insurance Costs

The standard policy excludes several major risks — these are separate policies or add-ons, each with its own price:

Flood insurance through the federal NFIP averages $786–$986 a year, but the range is extreme: low-risk inland properties pay around $400, high-risk zones $1,000–$2,500, and coastal high-hazard zones $3,000–$8,000+. NFIP caps coverage at $250,000 for the structure and $100,000 for contents, and new policies take 30 days to activate. Earthquake insurance in California averages about $1,319 a year, with low-risk areas paying $100–$300 and high-risk homes $800–$2,000+; deductibles run 5–25% of dwelling coverage, so a $400,000 home with a 15% deductible means $60,000 out of pocket before coverage starts. A $1 million umbrella policy — extra liability sitting on top of home and auto — costs $150–$500 a year, with each additional million adding $75–$150. And if you rent the property out, landlord insurance runs 15–25% more than a standard HO-3.

How to Save Money on Homeowners Insurance

• Bundle home and auto. The single easiest discount: 10–25% off, sometimes on both policies. Get the bundled quote from your car insurance carrier before shopping elsewhere.
• Raise your deductible. Moving from $500 to $1,000 saves up to 25%; $1,000 to $2,500 saves 10–15%. Park the deductible amount in a high-yield savings account so the higher out-of-pocket is real, not theoretical.
• Install a monitored security system. Professionally monitored alarms earn 5–20% off depending on the system and insurer; even smoke detectors and deadbolts usually earn at least 5%.
• Shop at least three carriers every renewal. The same coverage can cost hundreds of dollars more or less depending on the carrier — rate filings show the cheapest and priciest major carriers differing by roughly 2x for identical profiles in some states.
• Improve your credit score. Moving from poor to excellent credit can cut the premium by more than half on the same house — the $2,151 vs. $7,136 gap is the largest single personal factor in the data.
• Upgrade the roof. A new roof — especially impact-resistant shingles — can trim 5–10% off the premium and, in storm states, hundreds of dollars a year. In Florida and Texas the roof discount alone is one of the biggest levers available.

How We Get Our Cost Data

Our pricing is cross-checked against national rate datasets including The Zebra’s 2026 State of Insurance: Home report (rates from 180 carriers across 34,500 ZIP codes), MoneyGeek’s 2026 analysis of Quadrant Information Services carrier rate filings, and Insurance.com’s 2026 state-by-state premium analysis; add-on figures draw on FEMA NFIP policy transaction data, California earthquake insurance filings, and National Association of Insurance Commissioners policy-form data. The $2,966 national average and $2,500–$3,500 typical range are confirmed across multiple rate datasets; state, deductible, credit, and claims figures are each confirmed by two to three independent sources. Ranges reflect typical U.S. prices for a standard HO-3 profile with a $1,000 deductible. Data last updated October 2026.

Homeowners insurance is the rare bill where one afternoon of comparison shopping can save you hundreds a year: get three quotes at identical coverage, bundle what you can, and set the deductible at the highest number your savings can honestly cover. For the other half of protecting your household’s balance sheet, see life insurance costs.