Home insurance premiums climbed across nearly 1,900 U.S. counties in the first half of 2026, and more than 130 of those counties posted double-digit percentage increases, according to an analysis of homeowner rate filings that Insurify published on September 15, 2026. The national average annual premium reached $3,012, up 2.2 percent since January after a 12 percent jump in 2025, extending a run of increases now heading into a fifth straight year. Severe thunderstorms, hail and shifting state rating rules drove the sharpest county-level spikes, even as a handful of states posted the first premium declines homeowners there have seen in years.
Quadrant Rate Filings Behind The County Count
The figures come from Insurify’s aggregation of rate filings collected through Quadrant Information Services, an industry data source that tracks what insurers actually charge, rather than a government audit or court filing. Insurify’s economic analyst and licensed insurance agent Julia Taliesin, who wrote the September 2026 report, built the county and state averages from a standardized HO-3 policy: each state’s typical dwelling coverage limit, a liability limit equal to 75 percent of that dwelling amount, a 5 percent wind or hurricane deductible, a 2 percent hail deductible and a $1,000 deductible on other claims, assuming a homeowner with good credit and no claims in the past five years.
Applying that standardized policy across the country, Insurify found that nearly 1,900 of the roughly 3,000 counties it tracks recorded a premium increase between January and June of 2026, and more than 130 of those counties saw increases in the double digits. The company’s data also flagged five Minnesota counties where average rates jumped 20 percent or more in six months, a concentration Taliesin’s report ties directly to the state’s rising frequency of severe hail and wind events.
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Minnesota, Louisiana And Four States That Fell
Minnesota led every state with a 12.9 percent increase, adding $457 to push its average annual premium to $3,987, a jump Insurify’s data attributes largely to a growing pattern of hailstorms and thunderstorm wind damage across the southern part of the state. Louisiana followed at 8.6 percent, adding $434 to reach $5,484, while South Carolina rose 5.6 percent, California climbed 5.0 percent and Texas increased 4.1 percent, according to the same rate-filing dataset.
Those state averages sit on top of a much sharper county-level story, since the more-than-130 double-digit counties in Insurify’s count include some far steeper single jumps. Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, posted a 33.0 percent increase, the largest of any county Insurify tracked, pushing its average premium to $8,615 after Hurricane Ida caused an estimated $2.2 billion in insured losses in the parish, according to the Louisiana Department of Insurance figures cited in Insurify’s report. Collier County, Florida, rose 25.3 percent to $10,052, and Le Sueur County, Minnesota, climbed 23.9 percent, illustrating how far outlier counties diverge from their state averages.
Four states moved the other direction. Delaware posted the largest drop at 6.1 percent, followed by Indiana at 4.1 percent, Mississippi at 3.2 percent and Tennessee at 2.3 percent, Insurify’s analysis found. Delaware’s decline follows an 8.7 percent increase in the state between 2023 and 2025, and the report notes the state has avoided major severe-weather losses in recent years, a pattern insurers appear to be reflecting in lower renewal pricing.
Florida remained the single most expensive state for home insurance at an annual average of $8,486, despite a comparatively modest 2.3 percent increase in the first half of the year. Insurify’s report credits that slower growth to legislative changes that eliminated one-way attorney fees in property claims litigation, changes the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation says helped cut insurers’ average court defense costs from $992.89 per claim in 2022 to $817.64 in 2024.
For older homeowners specifically, the increases arrive with no age-based offset built into the pricing. Insurers do not lower premiums when a policyholder turns 65, and home insurance rates continue to be set by location, coverage amount and claims history rather than age, according to Insurify’s guide to home insurance for older homeowners. Retiree and loyalty discounts can trim part of an increase, but they depend on what a given insurer chooses to offer, unlike the age-based discounts common in auto insurance.
Severe Storms And State Rating Rules Behind The Increases
Behind the county-level spikes, Insurify’s report points to a specific pattern in the Upper Midwest: policy non-renewals rose 125 percent between 2018 and 2024, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. When insurers decline to renew a policy, homeowners often land with a new carrier, or a state-backed insurer of last resort, at a substantially higher rate, which shows up directly in the county averages Insurify tracked for Le Sueur, Watonwan and Martin counties in Minnesota.
State rating systems are also accelerating how fast those costs reach homeowners’ bills. Minnesota and Louisiana both let insurers begin charging a new rate as soon as they file it, before regulators finish reviewing the filing, which Insurify’s analysis says lets climate-related losses move into premiums faster than in states requiring pre-approval. A 2024 Minnesota law compounds that effect by letting insurers non-renew a policy after three storm-related claims exceeding $10,000 each, pushing more homeowners toward replacement coverage at higher prices, Insurify’s report notes.
Colorado’s eastern counties illustrate a similar dynamic tied to hail rather than hurricanes. Kit Carson County recorded a 22.0 percent increase and Prowers County rose 20.8 percent, both counties sitting in a stretch of the state’s Eastern Plains where hail risk drives a large share of premiums, Insurify’s analysis found. Neither county experienced a hurricane in the period; both sit hundreds of miles from a coastline, underscoring that severe thunderstorms, not just hurricanes and wildfires, now rank among the biggest drivers of rising home insurance costs nationally.
Insurify’s report projects the national average will finish 2026 up roughly 4 percent overall, building on the 12 percent increase recorded in 2025 and marking a fifth consecutive year of rising home insurance costs nationwide. That projection, layered on top of the nearly 1,900 counties and more than 130 double-digit increases already recorded through June, indicates the repricing driving current premiums is still unfolding rather than nearing an end, according to the same Insurify analysis.
Home Costs Beyond the Insurance Premium
Rising insurance premiums are only one line on a homeowner’s annual cost sheet, and the property-tax bill that arrives separately rarely mentions the relief programs a household might already qualify for. Circuit-breaker credits, exemptions and energy-assistance programs exist in most states, but the notice that raises a tax bill or a utility rate almost never lists the paperwork that could offset it. That gap between what a household owes and what it could claim back is where many older homeowners lose money by default.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit that lays out heating, cooling and home-repair help alongside an application log and renewal calendar for tracking deadlines.
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This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
