Research published by LendingTree finds that, from 2020 through 2025, home insurance rates rose 45.8 percent nationally, compared with a 26.1 percent inflation rate. That’s a 19.7 percentage point gap, or nearly double (about 1.8 times) inflation.
By the numbers:
- Colorado had the biggest gap, with home insurance rate changes outpacing inflation by 74.4 percentage points. Iowa (69.7) and Minnesota (61.9) followed. Just five states saw inflation outpace home insurance rate hikes, led by West Virginia (-8.7 percentage points), Vermont (-2.7) and Maine (-2.3).
- Between 2020 and 2024, home insurance rates grew more than median income did in all but nine states, with the largest gaps in Iowa (49.5 percentage point difference), Utah (43.8) and Colorado (42.8). Meanwhile, Vermont (-11.4), South Carolina (-9.0) and Maine (-8.3) are among the states where household income growth outpaced home insurance rate increases.
What they’re saying: Rob Bhatt, LendingTree home insurance expert and licensed insurance agent, said a combination of factors has contributed to this intense recent rise.
- “The first,” he says, “has been an uptick in large-scale natural disasters, including hurricanes, extreme wind events and wildfires.” And because of the way costs are shared across insured parties, disasters can increase prices even in less-prone areas.
“Meanwhile,” Bhatt goes on, “the costs of building materials and labor have also gone up at higher-than-normal paces. Insurance companies have had to repair or rebuild more homes than normal, and the cost of rebuilding each one is more expensive than it was before 2020. Unfortunately, insurance companies raise their rates to account for this type of growth in their expenses.”
