Property insurance now takes a record $209 out of the average monthly single-family mortgage payment, according to the September 2026 ICE Mortgage Monitor released Sept. 10 by Intercontinental Exchange. That cost equals 9.6% of the average payment, roughly one dollar in every ten a borrower sends to a servicer each month. The same data show the pace of increases slowing sharply, and homeowners who switched insurers in the past year cut their premiums by a record 6.6%.
A Record Share of the Monthly Payment
ICE, which maintains one of the largest loan-level mortgage databases in the country, said in its Sept. 10 announcement that the average single-family mortgage holder now pays $209 a month for property insurance, nearly 80% more than at the start of 2020. The 9.6% share is the highest the company has measured for the insurance portion of a payment.
The national average hides wide regional gaps. In New Orleans, property insurance consumes 24.3% of the average mortgage payment, the heaviest burden among the markets ICE tracks. In San Jose, the share is just 4.3%, largely because home prices and loan balances there are so high that insurance is a smaller slice of a much larger payment.
The $209 figure is an average across mortgaged homes, not a premium quote. Individual costs depend on location, rebuilding costs, coverage limits, deductibles and the insurer. But a line item of that size can change a household budget even when the loan’s interest rate and principal schedule never move.
The other half of the escrow bill: Insurance is only one escrowed cost. Property tax is the other, and senior relief on that side of the payment usually has to be applied for, with its own filing window. See the 5 kinds of property-tax relief in The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
Growth Is Slowing, but Costs Keep Climbing
Andy Walden, ICE’s head of mortgage and housing market research, said the latest quarter showed the first real easing. “Property insurance has been a fast-growing component of the monthly mortgage payment, but this quarter’s data shows the pace of increase is finally slowing,” Walden said. The 1.8% gain in the second quarter was the smallest quarterly increase since ICE began tracking the metric.
On an annual basis, property insurance costs rose 8.7%. That is down from 11.4% at the start of 2026 and a peak of 15.1% at the end of 2024. The makeup of the increase has also shifted. Higher coverage limits, up 5.5%, accounted for roughly two-thirds of the past year’s rise, while the cost per $1,000 of coverage climbed 3%. In 2024, insurers repricing risk drove most of the growth. Now much of it reflects homes simply being insured for more, as rebuilding costs and home values rise.
The slowdown is not uniform. ICE reported some of the largest annual increases in Greenville, South Carolina, at 15.8%; Honolulu, at 14.7%; Minneapolis, at 13.1%; and Sacramento and San Diego, at roughly 12%. Many of the fastest-rising markets were hit by recent hurricanes, wildfires or hail. Miami and New Orleans, the two most expensive insurance markets in the country, posted some of the smallest annual gains.
Why a Fixed-Rate Loan Can Still Cost More
For most borrowers, property insurance is collected through escrow. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau explains that an escrow account is set up by the lender to pay property-related bills, funded by a portion of each monthly mortgage payment. Because property taxes and insurance premiums can change from year to year, the escrow payment, and with it the total monthly payment, changes too.
That is how a homeowner with a 30-year fixed-rate loan can see the monthly bill rise. The principal-and-interest portion is locked, but a renewal notice with a higher premium flows into the servicer’s next escrow analysis, which can raise the monthly amount and sometimes add a shortage to be repaid.
The pressure falls hardest on older homeowners living on fixed incomes. A retiree who still carries a mortgage cannot count on a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment keeping pace with an 8.7% annual rise in insurance costs. Letting coverage lapse is not a safe way out. The CFPB warns that if a borrower fails to pay insurance, the lender may buy a policy on the borrower’s behalf and bill for it. This force-placed insurance is typically more expensive than coverage the homeowner buys directly.
Property insurance is also different from private mortgage insurance. Property insurance protects the home against covered losses such as fire or wind damage. Private mortgage insurance protects the lender when a borrower puts less than 20% down on a conventional loan. ICE’s $209 figure measures only property insurance.
Shopping Around Produced Record Savings
The most useful finding for household budgets may be what happened to homeowners who changed carriers. ICE found that borrowers who switched between private insurers over the past year reduced their insurance payments by a record 6.6% on average, the largest savings since the company began tracking the data in 2013. Those who stayed with their existing insurer saw premiums rise 10.4%.
The difference added up to about $440 a year in favor of switchers. And the savings did not come from cutting protection. Switchers’ deductibles fell 1.4% on average and their coverage limits rose 7.3%, according to ICE.
Bob Hart, president of mortgage technology at ICE, said the sharp differences across markets show the value of data and tools that give homeowners “greater visibility and choice as they manage their housing costs.” The full September report, with state and metro breakdowns, is posted on the ICE Mortgage Technology data reports page.
For a homeowner on a fixed budget, the practical steps are straightforward: compare the declarations page and premium at each renewal, get quotes from other carriers with the same or better coverage and deductibles, and check the servicer’s annual escrow statement to see exactly which part of the payment changed.
When Insurance Rises, Look at the Rest of the Housing Bill
Shopping for a better policy addresses one escrowed cost. The property-tax portion of the same payment, plus heating, cooling and repair bills, often has relief available to older homeowners, but each program sits with a different office and runs on its own calendar.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit includes the 5 kinds of property-tax relief, heating, cooling and home-repair help, and an application log and renewal calendar for keeping each filing date in view.
Line up the tax and home-cost side of the budget with The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
This article was prepared with AI assistance and reviewed against the linked official sources.
