Home insurance surge
Home insurance premiums are rising faster than inflation in many places — one summary puts national increases around 46% — adding fresh affordability pressure for homeowners this spring. The situation is extreme regionally: Hawaii condo rates jumped between 100% and 500% before state relief, insurers are still hiking in California, and Colorado lawmakers are proposing bills to try to make property insurance more affordable. ( ) ( )
A bill that used to feel like background noise is now acting like a second mortgage payment in a lot of places. LendingTree says regulator-approved home insurance rates rose 45.8% nationwide from 2020 through 2025, while inflation rose 26.1% over the same stretch. (lendingtree.com) This is not just a Florida or California story anymore. A March 24, 2026 paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas says insurance premiums rose about 70% nationally from 2019 to 2025 and are now large enough to affect mortgage delinquency and relocation decisions. (dallasfed.org) The reason is simple and brutal: when a roof, a kitchen, or a whole block costs more to rebuild, insurers charge more to cover it. Forbes Advisor says the average cost for a standard policy among 14 large insurers climbed from $1,582 in 2022 to $2,565 in 2025, driven by severe weather, tariffs, and higher building costs. (forbes.com) Hawaii shows what happens when the market breaks fast. State officials said condo associations were getting renewal quotes that were 100% to 500% higher, which pushed maintenance fees and special assessments up for owners who did not file a single claim. (kitv.com) The state responded by reviving the Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund in 2024 and then passing Senate Bill 1044, signed in July 2025 as Act 296. Hawaii’s insurance division says the law expands backup coverage options, creates a condominium loan program, and is meant to steady a market hit by major climate events and fewer willing insurers. (cca.hawaii.gov) California is a different version of the same squeeze. The California Department of Insurance says several major carriers paused or restricted new homeowner business beginning in 2023 even as approved rate increases kept moving through the system. (boe.ca.gov) The state’s answer is called the Sustainable Insurance Strategy, and it rewrites the bargain between regulators and insurers. California says carriers can use newer catastrophe models and reinsurance costs in rate filings, but in return they must write more policies in wildfire-distressed areas and help pull customers back out of the California Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort. (boe.ca.gov) (lassennews.com) Colorado lawmakers are trying a third approach: reduce the damage before the storm hits. A bill unveiled on April 7, 2026 would create grants to help homeowners strengthen roofs against wind and hail, which are two of the costliest sources of claims in the state. (koaa.com) Colorado has already been debating how much the state should intervene when premiums keep rising. The Colorado Sun reported that one version of the broader effort relied on a fee on homeowner policies to help buy reinsurance, which shows how far states are now willing to go to keep private insurers in the market. (coloradosun.com) For homeowners, the trap is that insurance is no longer a side cost you can trim with a cheaper cable plan. The Dallas Fed says rising premiums can push borrowers into missed mortgage payments, and Realtor.com reports more owners are raising deductibles because lower-deductible options are disappearing in higher-risk states. (dallasfed.org) (realtor.com) That is why this spring’s insurance story keeps showing up inside the housing story. When the price of protecting a house rises faster than wages, inflation, and sometimes even property taxes, the monthly cost of owning the home changes even if the mortgage rate never does. (lendingtree.com) (dallasfed.org)
