What's the Average Cost of Homeowners Insurance?

Recent statistics reveal the average cost of homeowners insurance in the United States was $695.70. However, the average price varies greatly from state to state, with a low of $369 in Idaho to a high of $1389 in Louisiana.

The actual price you pay for your homeowners insurance depends on numerous factors, including:

* The value of your house and possessions

* Whether you live in a high-risk area such as a flood plain

* The amount of your deductible

* Your credit history

Fortunately, there are ways you can save:

Don't Buy Too Much Coverage

One mistake that can lead you to pay a higher-than-average rate on your homeowners insurance is buying too much coverage. You do not need to include the value of your land when you're deciding how much coverage to buy.

Instead, you need to buy enough coverage to rebuild your home in case of a total loss. You can get an estimate from a local builder or real estate agent to help you determine this amount.

Select a High Deductible

The deductible is the amount you pay toward a loss before the insurance company begins to pay. Selecting a higher deductible will automatically give you a lower premium.

Keep Your Credit Record Clean

A homeowner with poor credit will pay more for homeowners insurance than will a homeowner with good credit - even for the exact same house.

Ask for Discounts

Most insurance companies offer discounts that can help lower your insurance bill. For example, you may be able to get a discount if you're a non-smoker or a senior citizen, or if your home has smoke detectors, a burglar alarm, or deadbolt locks.

Be sure to ask your insurer for all the discounts you qualify for and include them in your policy.

Comparison Shop on an Insurance Comparison Website

Just as the average insurance rate varies from state to state, it also varies from one insurance company to another. Therefore, you need to get quotes from several companies to ensure you're getting the best rate.

The fast and easy way to comparison shop is to go to an insurance comparison website.

Where to Find Cheap Philadelphia Homeowners Insurance

Due to rising crime rates and increasing fire rates, affordable homeowners insurance can be tough to find in Philadelphia. So how can you get cheap Philadelphia homeowners insurance? Here's how ...

Hit the Internet

You need insurance to protect your Philadelphia home not only from fire and burglars, but also from other perils such as vandalism, burst pipes, and storms.

To get the best price on homeowners insurance, you could spend days calling and visiting local Philadelphia insurance agents and collecting homeowners insurance quotes to compare. But you'll get more homeowners insurance quotes in less time by sitting down at your computer.

Just go to an insurance comparison website and fill out their simple online form with information about yourself and your home. In a very short time you'll receive homeowners insurance quotes from numerous A-rated insurance companies.

As an added bonus, the best insurance comparison websites also have an online chat feature, allowing you to talk online with insurance professionals. You can thus get immediate answers to all your homeowners insurance questions (see link below).

Keep Your Price Down

In the Philadelphia insurance market it's important that you take advantage of all the homeowners insurance discounts you can get. Special discounts insurance companies offer to Philadelphia residents include:

* Security discounts for installing dead bolt locks on all your exterior doors and locks on all your windows.

* Safety discounts for having smoke detectors, fire alarms, and fire extinguishers in your home.

* Security discounts for installing a burglar alarm, particularly one that's monitored.

* Raising your deductible - a higher deductible can lower your yearly premium by as much as 40%.

You may also be able to get a discount if you place your homeowners and car insurance with the same company, if you're a non-smoker, and if you're over 55 years old.

Where to Get Cheap Homeowners Insurance

Cheap homeowners insurance. Does it really exist? Yes ... if you know how and where to look. Here's how to find cheap homeowners insurance the easy way.

What Homeowners Insurance Covers

Structural Coverage - This coverage pays to have your home rebuilt if it's damaged or destroyed. To find out how much coverage you need, get the square-foot building cost in your area from a builder or a realtor, then multiply that figure by your home's square footage.

Personal Property Coverage - Your personal property is anything in your home that is not not part of the house structure - clothing, furniture, appliances, electronics, etc. To figure out how much personal property coverage you need, take an inventory of everything you own, then add up each item's value to get the coverage amount.

Expensive items like jewelry, furs, antiques, and collectables may not be covered under some policies, so you'll need to purchase extra insurance to cover them.

Liability Coverage - Liability coverage pays for damage done to others and their property when you're at fault. It also pays for your legal fees if you're sued. If you don't have a lot of assets, $100,000 coverage may be enough. But if you do have a lot of assets that you could lose in a lawsuit, consider purchasing at least $300,000 to $500,000 worth of liability coverage

Off-Premises Coverage - This pays for your basic living expenses if your home becomes uninhabitable due to fire or other causes. This coverage is especially important if you live in a high risk area for natural disasters.

Most homeowners policies do not cover floods and earthquakes, so you'll need to purchase extra coverage if you live in a flood or earthquake zone.

How to Get Cheap Homeowners Insurance

Insurance rates can vary by hundreds, even thousands of dollars from one company to the next. This being the case, the best way to get cheap homeowners insurance is to go to an insurance comparison website where you can compare rates from a number of different companies.

A few comparison sites even have insurance professionals on hand to answer any questions you may have through their online chat service (See link below.)

To get the cheapest rate, make sure to request the highest deductible you can afford, and get all the discounts you're eligible for.

Why Do I Need Homeowners Insurance?

North, South, East and West, home is best. Home sweet home! We all know that there are few things more valuable in life than our home. Our homes, where we will stay, always spend happy times with our families. Our home is in most cases the most valuable possession in our lives and the contents within are frequently not just expensive, but of great personal value. But wait a minute, it will be the greatest mistake in our lives if we do not get a homeowners insurance to protect our valuable possession. What if disaster visits us like a thief in the night without notice?

If you recognize the need to protect your home, you must make comparison of the best homeowners insurance quotes from more than 60 different insurance companies, so that you can get the best homeowners insurance price available. However, before you make your comparison, it is vital you know exactly what you are looking for and what you need from your policy.

Why is homeowners insurance necessary?

It is quite easy to think that bad things happen to other people and not ourselves, but the facts suggest that is not a risk we can afford to take. In the US alone, one in four will get burglared at some time in our lives yet about a quarter of households are not protected by any form of homeowners insurance. With other unfortunate occurrences such as flood/storm damage, fire and more, threatening our homes and their contents, by not having homeowners insurance we are leaving ourselves open to serious financial loss.

Home insurance can offer something for everyone with insurance for homeowners and renters. Increasingly, your mortgage lenders will insist that you have homeowners insurance to obtain a mortgage.

Insurers will need a lot of information from you and it is wise that you give all the information they ask from you in other to have the best policy that is right for you. Insurers also need to know about your area in other to assess the flood-risk.

Why Do You Need Homeowner's Insurance?

The biggest single investment most people make in their lifetime is buying a home, condominium or townhouse. What you want to do is protect your home, personal property and any type of liability with a homeowner's insurance policy.

Homeowner's insurance just does not cover homes, but it will cover those who rent homes, apartments, condos, and townhouses. These homeowner's policy are referred to at renter's homeowner policies. If you are a renter, you will not need protection against damage to the building itself, but you will need protection against damage or theft of your personal property and any type of liability just in case someone falls or gets hurts on the part of the premises that you rent.

A condominium or townhouse owner may also purchase a homeowner's policy to insure against loss of personal property. The condominium and townhouse owners also are responsible for the inside of the condominium or townhouse. You are not responsible for the outside structure but the walls and inside structure is your responsibility.

You, of course, would be protected with homeowner's insurance if there was theft or liability just in case someone injuries themselves in your condominium or townhouse. You would also be responsible if you cause, for example, water damage to someone's condo that may be underneath you.

Condominium or townhouse owners may buy homeowner's policies that may also include any additions or alterations not insured by the Condominium Association.

It is very important to check with your Condominium or Townhouse Association what is exactly covered by the Condominium Association and exactly what is not covered regarding the whole structure of your condominium.

Then sit down with your insurance agent before buying a policy to make sure you are adequately covered if there is fire damage within your home, water damage, roof damage or any type damage that you may not be sure is covered by the Condominium Association.

Why Florida Homeowners Insurance is So Expensive

I know an insurance agent in Florida. Clients call him all the time to ask why homeowners insurance rates here are so expensive. And can they be lowered?

For example, this call is typical: "I had a house in Vermont that was insured for $400,000," the caller said. "But my insurance premium was only $975 per year. Now you tell me that to insure this home in Florida, it's going to cost over $2,000 a year and it's only insured for $250,000. Why is Florida homeowners insurance so expensive?"

Florida Homeowners Rates Are in the Wind

To we who have lived here for any length of time, it seems like a silly question. But we forget: Florida homeowners insurance is expensive. The question deserves an answer. It's simple geography, really. And a concept called "reinsurance."

Remember, Florida is surrounded on three sides by water. Storms start off the coast of Africa and barrel westward, right toward us, gaining strength on their way. And most people in Florida want to live near the beaches, if not directly on the water. Combine all these factors and you have a recipe for disastrous levels of damage from windstorms.

These windstorms can do billions of dollars in damage. As a result, your Florida homeowners insurance rate includes a big "wind insurance" factor that you will not find in your premium back in Vermont. Sometimes that part of your premium can be higher than the part that goes to protect against fires, thefts, and other losses.

Florida Homeowners Rates and Reinsurance

Here's the problem: the insurance premium you pay must provide enough money to pay claims, cover all administrative expenses, provide a profit to owners of the company and to purchase "reinsurance" to protect against catastrophic losses. Florida property insurance rates are higher due largely to the cost of buying this "reinsurance" against catastrophic losses.

What is reinsurance? It is insurance that insurance companies buy to transfer the risk of a large-scale catastrophe. If insurers in Florida did not buy reinsurance, they would have to charge rates that included the likelihood of billion-dollar losses to all their policyholders. And that would mean rates that would be unaffordable to most homeowners.

Sometimes people say, "Well, yeah, but we had tornadoes back in Kentucky." But a tornado is usually a relatively isolated event, inflicting intense damage on a very limited area. By contrast, Hurricane Andrew, in one day, caused more than $30 billion in damage. So while tornadoes usually are more deadly, the property damage seldom approaches those levels. Hence, even in tornado prone areas, the rates are usually less.

Can You Lower Your Florida Homeowners Insurance Rates?

You most likely can. There are specific steps your agent can take to cut your Florida homeowners insurance rates, sometimes by 50% or more.

Your Roof and Your Homeowners Insurance

As a homeowner it is your responsibility to ensure the integrity of your roof. After all, the roof is the largest and most supporting structure of your home. If the roof is damaged, the interior of the home will likely become damaged. Having a roof repaired or replaced can be quite costly, which is why many of us have homeowners insurance. However, not all damage is covered under your homeowners insurance policy and you may be surprised to find out what you may be liable for paying out of pocket.

The Ins and Outs of Insurance

No two homeowners insurance policies are the same. In fact, the difference in your policy and your neighbor's policy is probably vastly different, even if you use the same company. The reason is because the policy is developed based on the specifics of your home, so unless your home is the exact same floor plan with the same builder materials inside, your policy is likely to be different.

What many homeowners find surprising the what types of repair or damages are not covered under their policy. Many people assume they have insurance coverage for certain types of repairs or damages when, in fact, they do not. They may not realize something isn't covered until their claim is denied, leaving them with hundreds to thousands of dollars in repair bills.

Getting To Know Your Policy

The best way to ensure there are no surprises in your insurance claims is to get to know your policy. Read the fine print and make sure you understand the details of the policy. Each policy will list the terms and conditions of the policy, as well as procedures for filing a claim. It is important you review the terms and conditions of your policy, rather than find out later on a particular damage claim does not qualify.

Most insurance companies offer coverage for damage related to natural events or "acts of God". In other words, any damage done to the roof as the result of a weather event, or unforeseen occurrence, would be covered by the insurance company. These events typically include hail, tornadoes, hurricanes, lightning and intense rain or wind. However, most insurance policies have qualification standards and restrictions in place that many people haven't read about. The most common restriction is whether the damage could have been prevented with proper maintenance.

For example, Jon and Susan experienced a hurricane and their roof was severely damaged during the storm. When the filed a claim to have their roof repaired, the insurance company denied their claim. Why? The insurance company had determined that Jon and Susan failed to properly maintain their roof prior to the storm; therefore, the damage could not be solely attributable to the storm. Had Jon and Susan kept their roof in good repair prior to the storm, the insurance company would have covered their claim for the repair.