State Farm homeowners customers in Illinois will see a higher rate when their policies renew starting Dec. 1, after the insurer filed an increase of roughly 8 percent that has applied to new policies since Oct. 1. The company told WGLT in Bloomington-Normal that the increases are needed to keep paying future claims. None of the reports on the filing says the Illinois Department of Insurance has approved the new rates.
The increase comes on top of the roughly 27 percent homeowners rate increase State Farm put through in Illinois in 2025. For a policy that took both increases in full, the two percentages compound to about 37 percent, because the 8 percent applies to a premium that already includes the earlier jump.
What the filing changes, product by product
State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. made the filing with the Illinois Department of Insurance, and the department marked it “Filed” on Oct. 5, according to Insurance Business, which lists the tracking number as SFMA-135045614. The whole homeowners program rises 7.9 percent, short of the 12.5 percent that company actuaries indicated.
The figure differs by product. Standard homeowners policies rise 8.5 percent, against an indicated 13.1 percent. Renters policies rise 5.8 percent, against an indicated 13.9 percent. Condo unit-owner policies fall 3.0 percent, where the actuarial indication was 0.2 percent. A reader’s own notice will show which line the policy sits in.
New business took the higher rates on Oct. 1, 2026, and renewals take them from Dec. 1, 2026. That timing means a policy renewing in December arrives at the new rate without any action by the customer. Anyone who wants to question the number has the weeks before the renewal date to do it.
The question for a homeowner holding a renewal offer is what to say when calling about the increase. The call goes to the agent who services the policy, and it starts with a plain request: confirm which product line the policy is rated under, and ask whether the new premium reflects only the rate change or also a change in coverage limits or deductibles.
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A homeowner can then ask the agent to walk through every discount currently on the policy and whether others apply, and to price the same coverage at different deductibles before Dec. 1. The notice should show the old and new premiums side by side. A jump larger than the filed percentages deserves a direct question about what else changed.
Why State Farm says it needs the money
State Farm points to weather and repair costs. In written statements to WGLT, the company cited “the effects of severe weather trends that are more frequent and severe” and rising repair costs, which it says pressure profitability. It also said it has paid $1.22 in claims and expenses for every $1 in premium collected in Illinois over the past three years.
A State Farm spokesperson, who was not named in the InsuranceNewsNet account of the filing, said the increase is meant “to remain financially prepared to pay claims as risks and costs change.” The company ties the request to catastrophic losses from extreme weather rather than to any single event.
The same argument appears in the company’s earlier statements on Illinois rates. On its Illinois newsroom page, State Farm says homeowners claim costs “amounted to $1.26 for every dollar in premium we collected” in the most recent year it cites, and $1.30 the year before, and calls those losses unsustainable. It also says rising home replacement costs and more frequent severe weather are pushing rates up.
Illinois ranked second only to Texas in hail damage claims in 2024, according to the same State Farm page. For a homeowner with a roof more than a decade old, the hail record is the part of the company’s argument that bears most directly on a premium, since roof age and condition are factors in how a home is priced.
The Illinois Department of Insurance’s role
The regulatory picture changed in August. Gov. JB Pritzker signed legislation allowing the department to review and approve home and auto rate changes, according to the WGLT report published by NPR Illinois. That report does not say whether this filing falls under that review or whether the department has approved it.
Insurance Business adds that Illinois is a use-and-file state, so the “Filed” status in the department’s records does not mean the department approved the rates. The department’s home page, idoi.illinois.gov, carries a headline about Pritzker signing insurance reforms to protect consumers and address affordability, though it gives no detail.
Homeowners with a problem on a claim or a premium can use the department’s complaint page. The department lists offices in Chicago at (312) 814-2420 and in Springfield at (217) 782-4515. A call to the agent comes first, and the department is the next stop if the answer does not hold up.
Because new policies already carry the higher rate, switching to a new State Farm policy does not avoid the increase. Other insurers file their own rates, so a comparison quote is the only way to measure State Farm’s renewal price against the market before the Dec. 1 date arrives.
The sequence ahead is short. The renewal notice is the document to compare against the filed percentages, the agent is the first call, and the department is the backstop. After a 27 percent increase last year and 8 percent this year, a few phone calls cost far less than another year of an unexamined premium.
Renewal notice on the counter?
A renewal that rises about 8 percent after a 27 percent jump is easy to pay without a call, and the extra dollars repeat every year the policy renews. A discount left unasked about at renewal stays unasked until the next one.
101 Phone Scripts to Lower Your Bills has 101 calls, word for word, for every company a household pays, including car and home insurance with every discount to ask about at every renewal. It is not affiliated with any insurer or government agency.
The scripts come with a call log for recording who was spoken with, what was saved and the reference number.
Get the insurance renewal call scripts and call log for a homeowners increase →
This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
