The National Association of Insurance Commissioners on Aug. 5 released its first nationwide analysis of homeowners insurance market trends, and the numbers confirm what agents and buyers in wildfire- and storm-prone states have been reporting for years: coverage is getting more expensive and harder to keep, at a pace that is now reshaping the cost of owning a home in large parts of the country.
The report, “Examining Homeowner Property Insurance Market Dynamics,” draws on seven years of Market Conduct Annual Statement data that state insurance departments collect from 715 companies writing homeowners coverage nationwide. It is the first time regulators have assembled that data into a single countrywide, state-level comparison covering 2018 through 2024.
The topline finding: inflation-adjusted premiums rose between 18.3% and 43.3% depending on region, or roughly 2.4% to 5.3% a year, well outpacing overall consumer inflation over the same period. Nonrenewal rates β policies insurers decline to continue at renewal, as opposed to policies a homeowner cancels β climbed even faster, up 96% to 216% depending on region since 2018.
Regional detail shows how uneven the pressure is. The West logged the steepest increases on both measures: premiums up 43.3% in real terms and nonrenewal rates up 216%, reaching 25.1 nonrenewals per 1,000 policies in 2024. The Southeast, where average premiums are the highest in the country at $1,818 a policy, saw nonrenewals climb to 22.0 per 1,000. The Northeast, by contrast, had the lowest average premium at $1,396, but even there company-initiated nonrenewals jumped 147% since 2018 to 11.7 per 1,000 policies β nearly 184,000 policies not renewed in 2024 alone, according to state data cited alongside the report. The Midwest posted the mildest nonrenewal increase, 14.2 per 1,000 in 2024.
NAIC researchers describe a market that remains “operationally strong overall,” with broad insurer participation and improved underwriting results in 2024 after several rough years. But the report also documents rising claim frequency and severity, particularly from 2021 through 2024, as the drivers behind higher premiums and tighter underwriting: more frequent and costlier catastrophe losses, rebuilding costs pushed up by construction-material and labor inflation, a sharp run-up in reinsurance costs that insurers pass through to policyholders, litigation and claims-related legal expenses in states with looser fee rules, and continued population and property growth in higher-risk areas such as wildfire zones in the West and coastal counties in the Southeast.
“This report provides authoritative and data-driven insights into market conditions” and reflects regulators’ commitment to “ensuring consumers have access to reliable homeowners insurance coverage,” Virginia Insurance Commissioner Scott White said in the release.
The findings track with what’s playing out on the ground in the hardest-hit states. In California, separate state Department of Insurance figures show enrollment in the state’s FAIR Plan β the insurer of last resort for homes that cannot find coverage on the private market β has nearly tripled since 2022, from roughly 270,000 policies to more than 680,000 by March 2026, with a 29% FAIR Plan rate increase set to take effect Oct. 15. RealtyWire has separately reported that Texas homeowners insurance premiums rose 30% between 2019 and 2024, pricing an estimated 7 million households out of the median home in their county once insurance is factored into the affordability math, and that Florida’s 2022-2023 litigation reforms cut the state’s share of national homeowners insurance lawsuits nearly in half, drawing at least 20 new carriers back into that market.
What it means for housing costs: Insurance has quietly become one of the largest and fastest-growing line items in the cost of owning a home, alongside the mortgage payment and property taxes β and unlike a fixed-rate mortgage, it resets every year. Lenders require continuous coverage to close and hold a mortgage, so a nonrenewal is not a minor inconvenience; it can force a homeowner onto a state FAIR Plan or surplus-lines policy that costs substantially more for less coverage, or in the worst cases jeopardize a sale or refinance altogether. For buyers, rising and less predictable premiums are increasingly factored into affordability calculations the same way property taxes and HOA dues are, and in the most exposed West Coast and Gulf Coast markets, insurance cost and availability are starting to influence where buyers are willing to shop at all. Agents in high-risk ZIP codes are also seeing insurance quotes β not just interest rates β become a closing contingency, with deals occasionally falling apart when a buyer cannot secure or afford coverage before closing.
NAIC’s Property and Casualty Insurance Committee is not done digging into the issue. Regulators in April launched a separate, more granular data call requiring insurers to report homeowners data down to the ZIP code level for policy years 2018 through 2025, with a report expected in early 2027 that could give buyers and agents the first block-by-block view of where coverage is thinnest and premiums are rising fastest.
