How to Lower Your Home Insurance Premiums
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Here's your money briefing for Tuesday, December 6th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. With inflation so high, it costs more to insure your car, more to insure your health, and now it's gotten even more expensive to insure your home. Since last year, home insurance premiums have gone up by a lot.
Inflation, supply chain issues, and labor shortages, all these things drive up the cost of home repairs and replacement. Also, natural disasters play a big role in this, especially in certain areas of the country.
But there are ways to trim several percentage points off your monthly premiums. Our personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger has been running the numbers. She'll share what she found after the break.
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Why have homeowners' insurance premiums risen nearly 10% since early last year?
homeowners' insurance premiums have skyrocketed in the past year and a half, adding to the strain on household finances. WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger has been talking to experts in the field about why premiums have risen and how homeowners can lower their insurance bills. Veronica, thanks for being with us.
Thanks for having me, JR.
So Veronica, home insurance premium rates rose 9.3% from the start of 2021 through late November of this year. That's according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. What's been driving up the premium so much?
There's a couple of factors. So they are up in part due to inflation, supply chain issues, and labor shortages. All of these things drive up the cost of home repairs and replacement. Also, natural disasters play a big role in this, especially in certain areas of the country. You know, damage from tornadoes, hurricanes, severe storms, wildfires, all these natural disasters are boosting premiums for those people who live in those areas, but also all Americans.
And so how does home insurance help protect people financially from those sorts of damages?
Well, they can help cover the cost of repairing and replacing the home up to a certain extent. Some contents that are in the home are also covered depending on your policy. You know, if you have damage or theft, your policy should pick up some of those issues for you. Again, you need to read your policy carefully, though, to see exactly what it's going to cover.
Yeah, you know, a lot of people probably haven't gone line by line through their policy in a while. Are there sometimes things hidden away in there that can help you save?
you might be able to eliminate some of this coverage that's called other structures. And that might be a bit hidden in your policy or roped in with some of your other coverage. So this is a bucket of coverage that if you don't have a freestanding garage or a shed or a retaining wall or a pool or other items that would fall under this category, you might be able to eliminate it. You need to call up your insurer, ask if they will reduce or eliminate that coverage.
What role do inflation, supply-chain issues and labor shortages play in higher home insurance costs?
You might have a better chance of getting it reduced. But if you do, consumers we're hearing can shave 1% to 10% off their premium with this move, depending on the insurer and if they will let you cut out that category.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–1:53
2
Why have homeowners' insurance premiums risen nearly 10% since early last year?
1:53–3:53
3
What role do inflation, supply-chain issues and labor shortages play in higher home insurance costs?
3:53–4:28
4
How do natural disasters and regional risk drive up premiums for homeowners?
4:28–9:06
Speakers
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