Auto insurance is up more than 20 percent from a year ago. In many places, private home insurance isn’t available at all. Consumers are steaming. 
Insurance Chart Notes
- The auto insurance data series is straight from the BLS.
- Home insurance data is from the BLS via Fred, the St. Louis Fed data repository.
- The index level dates are defaults from the BLS. I would prefer the dates to be equal and could do that in Fred, but Fred does not have auto insurance data.
- Today, I asked the St. Louis Fed to add auto insurance to the data metrics they cover.
Car and Home Insurance Percent Change From Previous Month
Car insurance is on an amazing run. For 13 straight months, insurance is up at least 1.0 percent. For 20 straight months car insurance is up at least 0.7 percent.
Home insurance, if you can get it at all from any private insurer, is also rising at a fast clip as the lead chart shows.
Insurance does not really go up monthly as shown. Rather, people see a big jump in prices at annual or semi-annual renewals. The BLS smooths this out.
CPI Car Insurance Percent Change From Year Ago
Car Insurance Notes
- For 11 consecutive months dating to March of 2023, car insurance has been rising at least 15 percent year-over-year.
- For 17 consecutive months dating to September of 2022, car insurance has been rising at least 10 percent year-over-year.
CPI Home Insurance Percent Change From Year Ago
Compared to auto insurance which is rising across the board, the above chart looks relatively benign.
But that is a result of BLS smoothing two ways. As with cars, people see a big jump in prices at annual or semi-annual renewals. The BLS smooths this out.
Second, if you live in a flood zone, hurricane zone, or fire zone, your costs are more likely to be up 100 percent than 4 percent, if you can get insurance at all.
Selling Insurance is One of the Worst Jobs in California
The Wall Street Journal reports How Selling Insurance Became One of the Worst Jobs in California
“It’s soul-crushingly tough,” said Harper, who owns an insurance agency in the mountain town of Coarsegold, near Yosemite National Park. “There are no good days.”
Like Harper, many agents are on the sharp end of a national crisis in home and auto insurance. Things are especially bad in California. Insurers have fled the state, pummeled by losses from drought-spurred wildfires and, this month, storm-triggered flooding.
It never used to be this bad. Harper, an 18-year insurance veteran who sells on behalf of Farmers Insurance, said his job offered the satisfaction of helping people. “A family would walk in needing coverage, you’d write them a policy, and they’d walk out happy,” he said.
“Those days just don’t happen anymore,” he added. “You never get to deliver good news—every rate change is an increase, every coverage change is a restriction. My staff and I, we’ve had to build up some scar tissue.”
The problems stretch beyond California and Florida, said Charles Symington, chief executive of the Independent Insurance Agents and Brokers of America. “What makes this difficult market so unique is its severity and its national scope…our agents are seeing it everywhere,” he said.
Double-digit rate increases for home insurance were approved in 25 states last year, with effective increases of more than 20% in Texas, Arizona and Utah, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Agents find themselves trying to explain the increases. “We daily deal with angry and distraught clients,” said Angelyn Treutel Zeringue, president and owner of the Gulf Coast arm of SouthGroup Insurance Services, a Mississippi-based independent agency. “We completely understand their angst, because we are experiencing the very same issues in our own home and business lives.”
Johnson, a battalion chief, is paying $6,800 annually, more than double his premium six years ago when he bought his home in Bass Lake, a mountain village surrounded by pine trees. He had to get a state plan for wildfire coverage. Johnson is concerned about the impact on the property’s value: “The part no one talks about is the fact you can’t sell your home.”
Florida Insurance Hikes
On February 17, 2024, Wesh 2 News reported Two Insurance Companies Seek Hikes of Over 50% for Florida Homeowners.
Castle Key Indemnity Company, owned by Allstate, covers condo owners. The company has proposed its rate to jump by 53.5% for customers.
A spokesperson for Allstate told WESH 2 the increase was filed with the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation in 2023 and that a majority of their customers have already experienced the increase.
Amica Mutual Insurance, which covers properties like vacation homes, has proposed a 54.1% increase. The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation will hold hearings next week to decide if it’ll approve the rate requests.
“The more storm losses we see, the higher premiums are going to go,” said Mark Friedlander, who is the Florida spokesperson for Insurance Information Institute.
“And it’s not just hurricanes,” Friedlander said. “We’ve had several tornado outbreaks this year during the winter season. Rare.” While other companies may also consider raising their rates, Friedlander said last year, many companies were seeking triple-digit jumps.
True Cost of Auto Insurance
A Bankrate report comments on the True Cost of Auto Insurance
To paint a clear picture of the true cost of car insurance, we analyzed what percentage of household income is spent on an annual full coverage car insurance policy. Nationally, the average cost of full coverage car insurance rose to $2,543 in 2024, an increase of 26 percent over last year. With a national median household income of $74,580 according to the latest data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Americans spend 3.41 percent of their income on car insurance.
The national average cost for full coverage car insurance is $2,543 per year, or $212 per month. Drivers with minimum coverage pay an average of $740 a year, or $62 a month.
Huge Premiums in Hurricane States
Louisiana and Florida, both in hurricane zones, have the highest costs in the nation.
Louisiana has annual premium of $3,618. That is 6.53 percent of income, the highest in the nation on a percentage of income basis.
Florida has an annual premium of $3,945. That is 5.69% of income, the second highest in the nation.
Percent of CPI
Why Are Insurance Costs Up?
- The cost of homes are up.
- The cost of cars are up.
- The cost of replacement parts are up.
- Minor accidents can ruin an EV battery, the most expensive component of an EV.
- Wages are up, so the cost of home and auto repairs are up.
- Poor fire prevention policies in California and elsewhere.
People blame “climate change” but the above 6 reasons are what you really need to know.
Lags, the Meme of the Day
Since CPI lags are the meme of the day, please note that both home and auto insurance are understated due to lags.
The BLS reports year-over-year home insurance is up only 4.1 percent from a year ago but rates went up double digits in 25 states last year.
Insurance policy increases have not yet fully filtered into BLS reports. But rent is more important and lags there run the opposite direction.
Is More Inflation On the Way?
Whether or not more inflation is on deck depends on who you ask, who is doing the counting, and the definition of what should or shouldn’t be measured.
For three views on where we are headed, one of them mine, please see Debate Over Lags, OER, and Rent: Is More Inflation On the Way?
It makes perfect political sense to blames every damn thing you can on climate change
Hurricanes are no worse than 10 years ago. But what about the cost of cars, homes, repairs?
Stop the climate bullshit.
The primary reason for rate hikes in Florida is well-understood to be the dramatic increase in the cost of reinsurance provided by the big internationals like Lloyds and Swiss Re. They are publicly blaming global climate change.
Florida is slowly going socialist on homeowner’s insurance. It has its own insurance company called Citizens which will provide a policy if you can’t get one in the private market for a maximum of 20% more than a Citizen’s policy. And you can’t. They also have a small reinsurance company that is the first stop before hitting the big internationals. There is now a proposal before the state House to turn citizens into a hurricane only insurance. So, hurricane damage can be provided by the State of Florida, flooding by the federal government, and fire, which is very rare, by the private sector.
Most housing in Florida is no longer a long-term sustainably profitable enterprise. It now requires socialism to make sure the developers can continue to make a fortune.
FYI…
I just got new insurance for same reason, expense jump.
State Farm is lowest price now, they want new customers.
Farmers was next best deal.
But Snake Farm will give you hell when you have a claim.
So, what do you propose Florida residents do besides “socialism” if the private sector won’t provide the service?
I will remind you also that some of the largest property & causality and auto insurance companies are in and of themselves a type of ‘socialism’ given that they operate as cooperatives. For example: State Farm, Liberty Mutual, Amica, USAA.
“if the private sector won’t provide the service?”
Pay less for houses. If necessary, although I doubt going that far is not quite necessary: Enough so that people can largely self insure.
Something resembling a free market: Allowing anyone anywhere anytime; from any place, to freely ad to supply wherever they believe they can physically do so at below the current going rate for covered space; would render the whole idiot-panic a complete non-issue. Just as free markets always do. Shortages of something as trivially simple and long-since solved as boxes with a few openings and some plumbing, simply don’t exist in free countries. Only in socialist ones.
Nothing requires socialism.
Citizens only covers the poorer people. It’s capped at about 500K (1 million in Miami/Dade) which isn’t much these days in terms of home prices.
Insurance companies just need to stop doing entire replacements above and beyond what was damaged. I detailed this below in a post about my own experience where they are replacing way more than is needed to cover the letter of the policy.
“Insurance companies just need to stop doing entire replacements above and beyond what was damaged.”
Which won’t happen, as long as the idiots’ handed “ownership” of everything by The Fed and Junta, are wholly dependent on the delusion that decaying shacks somehow add value sitting there, for all their unearned wealth and privilege.
If it was about living space, the guy living in his house would do as you advice: Be rational and efficient and frugal. But as long as housing does not exist to provide people roofs over their head, but rather to provide connected idiots “inveeeeestment returns”, no leeching class “inveeeestor” nor mortgage holder would accept any insurance which repaired the place in any way that it could; even possibly; “impair” the connected leeching class member’s “home vaiue,” and/or colatteral, by even one penny.
In general, when you have an entire “system”, set up and maintained entirely, 100.00000%, for the sole and only purpose of facilitating unearned wealth transfers to the rankest and least productive of societies leeching dregs: You are going to end up with an awful lot of things being done in a maximally idiotic fashion. America is, after all, country both by and for idiots by now. And idiots will idiot. It’s all they know.
Again, homeowners insurance is only up 4.1%. There is no reason to blame anything.
Try again, my home insurance went up 28% in one year.
You obviously don’t understand how to read the charts in the article.
I used to be a subscriber to National Geographic. In the early 2000s I noticed that just about every article mentioned climate change (called “global warming” at the time) in some way, shape, or form. As time went on, the publication blamed everything, and I mean everything, on climate change. It became laughable. Needless to say I dropped my subscription shortly thereafter.
Climate Change has turned into a cult like religion that is constantly vomiting propaganda. It’s no different than Bitcoin proponents, political philosophies, or the ravings of the leader of a doomsday cult.
I still get National Geographic and agree that part of every story is blaming problems on Climate Change. But now I see things changing. Critical Black Theory (In all it’s forms) is starting to replace Climate Change as a cause of the worlds problems.
Disney is majority shareholders of NG at 74%
The climate change scape goat has served the powers that be very well, too bad too many people drink the kool-aid and don’t use common sense much anymore…
For that matter the ravings of US presidents, new or used.
That’s just indirection.
We all know that Climate Change is of course Putin’s evil plot.
Ask anyone in Washington, DC.
Vaxadents? A real thing!
If we really don’t like the soaring prices of insurance, rent, cars, whatever, we need to quit voting for BOTH of the Republican AND Democrat candidates at elections at all levels, local, state, national, etc. So if you vote for Trump OR Biden and all the R and D Congress, you are saying YES, make everything more expensive. Because all they do is spend and print money that’s not backed by more goods and services. It’s amazing that people are mad about inflation when they repeatedly vote for the politicians that spend money we dont have.
[…] want insurance coverage. Within the final yr, the price of vehicle insurance coverage has elevated 20.6% for vehicle insurance coverage. It has been growing by a minimum of 10% for 17 straight […]
I moved out if California 4 years ago. Selling insurance is not the only soul crushing experience there. Good riddance.
House has more than doubled in value in 8 years partly thanks to COVID and people moving here. House insurance tripled because they are factoring in future inflation to fix my house. Gee thanks.
As the mother WEFers promised, “you will own nothing and be happy”. They will get you out of your house and car one way or another so you can live in their Utopian 15-min cities.
Inflation and recession are coming, primarily because of war and the $10 trillion in debt that needs to be rolled over the next two years ($7.6 trillion this year), at a time when we are threatening our biggest lender (China) that has already gone from holding 30% of our debt to 10% because they know defaults and war are coming.
BTW, did you see Tucker’s interview with Mike Benz – link to x.com.
Best understand how the duping gets done because there will be a whole lot of it in the lead up to the manufactured world war and the many elections around the world (including Putin’s next month). Things are never as they seem, including the recent propaganda that Putin killed Navalny – link to armstrongeconomics.com.
One more rosy thought, Since the public has no interest in war, there will need to be a major false flag along the lines of 9/11 to drag the public along, which could happen this summer, especially if they think Trump will win.
Average folks need to take a different view of insurance.
It’s not a cost.
It’s a private sector tax.
And, like most taxes, if you are rich enough it can be avoided if you so desire.
Tell that to the mortgage companies
Gotta cover the cost of all those EV inferno fires.
Luton Airport etc.
Mish discusses that home prices are up…. Of course they are because private equity, ie., Coventry, et al.
link to zerohedge.com
The FED per Mike Shedlock via Zerohedge in October ’23.
And per Pro Publica in 2022 citing private equity.
link to propublica.org
As for auto insurance my insurance has gone up 15% per year since 2022. I do not own a new car. In fact the the vehicle was manufactured in 2009 by Honda. My spouse and I have no accidents on our record that are our fault nor have a history of being in accidents due to the other driver’s fault. We have no moving violations. We live in a middle class to upper middle class neighborhood. We haven’t filed a claim for theft, or any other reason. So why the increase. HOW ABOUT THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IS AN OLIGOPOLY and the state insurers are bought and paid off.
As for the EV excuse: how many claims have been filed by drivers for accidents when driving their EV and the battery has been destroyed. Inquiring minds want to know. And if the insurance carrier considers it a high-end policy to insure then charge the policyholder accordingly. Leave those that are still driving conventional vehicles alone.
Wages are up……Another indirect slam at labor. The corporatists and crony capitalists caused this inflationary cycle to mushroom equal to the helicopter drop and the FED stimmy. Corporate profits per the FED are up 31.2% from Q1 ’19 or pre-Covid through Q1 ’23 yet inflation over that same time was 17.2%.
Poor fire prevention in California and other places. Blaming California and other places for egregious non performance by regulated utilities to perform proper maintenance of their equipment and fire prevention measures. In short the PUC and the utilities were to blame for this malfeasance and similar to the GFC no regulator or executive went to jail.
As I’ve remarked on several occasions on this site:
If you aren’t at table you are on the menu.
As an IC vehicle driver, I don’t want to pay for EV repair and replacement costs. As an inlander in a safe area, I don’t want to pay for Florida hurricane damage, New Orelans flood damage, Kansas tornado damage. If insurers are spreading thse costs to all policy holders, the the insurers need to go to jail
Florida auto has gone up more than 20% for me and my family…with no accidents. State farm…What about Utilities? In Pinellas County our electric has gone up by 20% also, Duke Power…when I called to question them they were brutally honest that the Governor had approve (2) price increases in 1 year,,,Not so sure but there was speculation surrounding DeSantis’ political run and the dontation from the various lobbying groups…might be worth investigating…not going to make much of a difference though
Not one mention of uninsured motorists as a cause for auto insurance rate increases? IMO, it’s a bigger issue and contributor to high auto insurance rates.
Excellent Point
Too bad you can’t buy inflation insurance.
If it is on your table’s menu, you can. See Hedge Funds and Elected Officials for details.
A friend complained today her long term health care insurance premium was bumped 137% and she couldn’t afford it. Insurance is a big part of the health not-care problem in the USA.
No one has mentioned the invasion of our country by masses of third-world criminals who break into cars and/or steal them and trash them. Combined with the domestic variety of criminal which is on the rampage, unafraid of prosecution for any of their deeds, the insurance companies are making massive payouts as of late, and responsible American citizens are going to continue to pay and pay and pay more and more and more.
I didn’t vote for any of this.
The US empire is experiencing blowback.
Just paid renewal from Nationwide(not taking any new customers in AZ now)
just 38% increase from last year
have another 3 policies coming due in March – all are up 30%+
we decided few months back that we weren’t going to pursue purchase of mountain home
due to lack/cost of insurance
booking our mobile vacay now – 5th wheel that is
I used to live in Coarsegold. I got out because of the fires. I missed the big runup in homeowners insurance. I have friends in Bass Lake who lost their home to fire the year that we moved out.
“Poor fire prevention policies in California and elsewhere.”
California’s fire prevention policies are as bad as Florida’s hurricane prevention policies.
Mish, you are normally at least open to data but somehow you have just shut your mind to climate change. I don’t know why you are so closed minded except either you don’t like what is necessary to help solve the problem or it is too complex for you to understand. I think that it is the former.
Governments and certain organizations have done a horrible job in suggesting (and in some cases mandating) changes. Energy is what allows so many people to live on earth and the living standards that we have. One can’t force reductions in hydrocarbon energy use without having a realistic alternative ALREADY IN PLACE.
Given the poor job by established powers and tremendous resistance by those that have a vested interest in hydrocarbons (which are actually my largest investment right now because of government mismanagement of any energy transition), I don’t expect much, if any, change in the situation. I am just preparing for it. There just isn’t much else one can do.
Coarsegold has not been the same since Gabby left.
How exactly do you prevent a hurricane? I can see how large forest fires can be managed or prevented, but not massive atmospheric events. You are comparing apples to oranges.
Climate change is a lie.
Yep. Been with State Farm Mutual for years. Standard 6-month renewals. Had about a 20% increase last summer. Just got my bill for the next 6-month renewal and they want another 17%. No accidents.
Very aggravating but it’s hard to blame State Farm with the cost of vehicles and vehicle repairs having shot up like crazy the past few years. They’re a mutual so it’s not like the increased premiums are going to Wall Street. Things just have gotten so much more expensive since the pandemic.
Things have gotten more expensive since the rigged election.
There. I fixed that for ya.
Complete and utter nonsense. Things have gotten more expensive in much of the world, having nothing to do with an election specifically in the US (which wasn’t rigged BTW).
One number 81,000,000. No way a nursing home patient gets that many votes. No one with a brain believes that. The communist saint Obama only got 65M.
It’s not about 81 million voting for a nursing home patient. It’s about 81 million voting against a fraudster and a liar.
Not the election, but the policies of the person who git elected.
Staying with a single insurer, for a long time, is very expensive. If you get a quote, from an independent agency, that carries multiple companies, you will likely save a lot of money.
I have on occasion shopped other companies. However, I have auto, home and umbrella policies with SF and they provide a good multiline discount. In the past my experience has been that if I price with other companies then yes, one of the lines might come in cheaper but if I price all of the policies I need then the total for all the policies together works out where State Farm is competitive.
Yeah, but you can watch behind your SUV on the dashboard TV from the drivers seat.
Fancier toys are more expensive.
For safety reasons that’s actually not a bad feature to have.
It is not just the cost of the insurance policy. My policy was cancelled by insurance company in Florida. To even try to get new policy, had to pay for an insurance inspection, then the possible insurance company demanded electrical repairs. Then they did not insure me anyhow. These are all cost increases that are not being picked up in the CPI. My insurance agent told me I was lucky only paying several thousand dollars to maybe get insurance. She has seen homeowners be forced to rewire their entire house.
I’ve had the same inspection.
If you bought recently you can use the home inspection report since at least in my case it covered the electrical.
A tornado went by a few years ago. 35 miles away. So they doubled my homeowners. Then they canceled. Now im with some other morons. They sent a guy out recently to take pics of my chimney and wood stove. I”m just waiting for the letter.
All fine and dandy except for people who have a mortgage and will get foreclosed on for not having insurance.
The US is straight up rotting on the vine.
water is the only thing that hasn’t gone up. I’m waiting.
my sewer is doubling. delayed maintenance by previous admins finally caught up to the city
Starting to get too expensive to live.
Prices in France (my case):
car: $430/year
house (2500 sq. ft.): $565/year
something to do with PPP ?
Something to do with Democrats.
Well, actually, it’s the Uni-party. Every administration spends more than the previous one. Trump wanted bigger stimmie checks than he got. Of course, the pandemic spending is what really finished us off. The faster you increase the money supply, the more inflation you get. I don’t see any candidates talking about lowering spending. Deficits are expected, even by the CBO, to be $2T per year going forward.
This inflation ride is not over.
I’m in CA. I got my first auto insurance bill for 2024 and was shocked. The bill almost doubled with no change. I had my wife call because I thought there was a mistake. They said the whole state went up, starting Jan 1st.
Regarding home insurance:
“ The Policygenius report cites “record-high insurance industry losses, more severe climate disasters, prolonged wildfire seasons, and higher construction prices” as some of the reasons for higher home insurance premiums.”
link to money.com.
CNA, UNUM. Check them out.
Thanks.
Instead of thanks, I prefer “choo! choo!” to indicate the money train is leaving the station.
But home owners insurance is only up 4.1%. The exceptions being where insurance companies are taking huge losses from climate change related weather events, regardless of what Mish refuses to believe.
Yes. The insurance industry is very aware of the ever-increasing claims related to extreme weather events and they frequently mention climate change as a reason to stop issuing policies. After all, they wouldn’t be abandoning more and more customers if they didn’t expect conditions to get worse. No company likes to shrink its business.
Or maybe people are living in areas that are prone to flooding now – cuz there are too many people
Corollary: No company likes to retain unprofitable business.
Ok if you believe man is changing the climate – what are you personally doing to reduce your burn?
Read up on Jevon’s Paradox before you answer and make a fool of yourself
Anyone who believes that mankind is changing the climate already has proven themselves a fool.
Man’s activities have next to zero influence on the climate
Last I saw, 85% of people are aware that man is changing the climate and the other 15% are the cult morons.
Stop using the comic strip as your sole source of information. Wait – maybe you attended Harvard!
Correction: 85% of westerners uncritically believe the mainstream media and grifting politicians. Most of the world doesn’t even think about climate change. They are too busy working to raise their standard of living to that of the West.
Mankind is clearly changing the climate. Only anti-science cult dummies think otherwise.
What am I personally doing about it? Attempting to profit from it.
Because no individual can do anything about it.
Talk about a cultist….you take the cake and eat it too!
Ok. So walk the walk.
Stop buying stuff.
Stop driving a car.
Stop flying.
Stop taking holidays
Do you have kids – grand kids?
Do this to them link to youtube.com
Of course not right. Well then … stop complaining.
The vast majority of the world, especially south of the equator and east of the EU don’t even think about climate change. They are not anti-science cult dummies. They are busy working hard to make arrogant westerners economically less significant.
I intend to exhale 10% less CO2 in 2024.
What are you going to do?
I am going to continue to grow plants – they LOVE CO2!!!
It makes perfect political sense to blames every damn thing you can on climate change
Hurricanes are no worse than 10 years ago. But what about the cost of cars, homes, repairs?
Stop the climate bullshit.
Absolutely
What amuses me is that the green groopies moan and wail believing we are wrecking the climate… yet they continue to do all the things that they believe are wrecking the climate.
And they ask for everyone but them to fix this fake problem
Not me. I am investing in oil and gas companies because I intend to profit from this.
I am well aware that climate change is a real problem. I am also well aware that I cannot do anything about it.
Which is quite a bit different from the morons who think it’s a hoax. Or the moron protestors who want to stop using fossil fuels right now.
You are all idiots.
And don’t forget Don Tristan de Luna’s ill fated colony in 1559 in what is now Pensacola, FL. They were wiped out completely by a hurricane-sunk all 11 ships & destroyed the village. Another climate change disaster? Or, the 1900 Galveston hurricane that wiped out 7,000 buildings and killed approx 8,000 people. Surely caused by climate change? Also, the 1935 Labor Day hurricane that swept trains off their tracks and killed hundreds in the Florida Keys. Bodies washed ashore for months afterwards. Another tragic climate change disaster? An argument could be made that giant tropical storms were much worse in centuries past than now.
Sorry Mish. Climate change is not bullshit. It is a very real problem.
And it is going to keep getting worse.
I agree, that it is not the only reason that insurance rates are going up, but it is part of the reason.
What makes you think that all those insurance companies are lying about it? Or the banks? Or the pension funds? Or most of the world’s major corporations?
Because they all continue to buy large coastal properties at sea level because the sky screamers are swallowing their propoganda – and they suffer fools gladly.
Really? Mine went up over 100%.
Don’t panic! Spring is coming. It’s going to get warmer.
Yeah….idiot.
You must not own a home.
Maybe, maybe not. It’s like some company justifying losses when some meme is tossed around.
However, we had a good 15 years of ZIRP, and losses in everybody’s conservative portfolio. In other words you either lost money or you lived dangerously.
Insurance companies used to invest insurance premiums in conservative investments which stopped paying any returns, and the first thing they did, they raised premiums and justified it by ZIRP. That was long before climate change alarmism was in vogue.
I do believe climate change is a wildcard and irreversible, but also that insurance companies conveniently jumped on the bandwagon.
Replacement insurance is also killing those companies because they are *way* over spending trying to replace everything *exactly* as it was.
Case in point. I had some water damage in my house last May. The laundry room on 2nd floor leaked and it did some water damage to the ceiling and floor of the dining room below. If I was fixing this myself, I’d have replaced the ceiling and walls in the dining room and tried to save the floor after hiring water remediation to make sure everything was dried up so no mold. The insurance company came and said that wouldn’t be good enough and that I’d have to replace my entire floor on my 1st floor, re-do all my ceiling on my first floor (older popcorn), paint all the walls on my first floor plus some work on the 2nd floor in the laundry room. The reason is because I have a contiguous floor (all same material), ceiling and paint color. So it’s not allowed to ‘not quite match’ due to aging and thus they have to replace everything. Their payout is almost 80K to do all this work vs what I’d have spent maybe 20 on (most being the water remediation). That’s what’s killing them because materials and labor have gone up so much and they over do every fix.
Climate change is a lie.
And your scientific qualifications are…?
He doesn’t listen to CNN/MSNBC to start with.
I only believe in climate and weather – both are changeable.
Don’t underestimate the Lawyers and generous jurys effects on insurance prices. Happy I nolonger have my Property and Casualty agents licence.
Car insurance cost are out of control because the cost of vehicles is out of control. Having the average price of a new vehicle rise from 36K in 2019 to 48K in 2024 has consequences. That 25% rise in price means insurance should also be going up 25% in that time frame.
The real problem is manufacturers making cars so expensive by loading them down with crazy expensive options and other features (they are so over engineered now). You just can’t get a basic model any more than that’s the problem. Not just for you but also for your insurance because lord forbid if you hit someone in a new truck that costs 100K to replace and your insurance doesn’t cover it (unless you get expensive insurance).
But it’s a free market? If the demand weren’t there auto manufacturers wouldn’t be making all those vehicles with all those bells and whistles. Manufacturers are just giving the people what they want, cool new techno-cars that cost $100k.
“Strange game professor Faulkin, it seems the best move is not to play….”
“But it’s a free market?”
If it was anything close to a free market, a $48K car would require coming up with 2,400oz’ of Gold. At a time when every other average-car buyer was scrambling to get hold of their 2,400oz’ as well.
Too many government mandates on automotive design to call it a free market.
The comprehensive part of the insurance might go up with the value of the cars but liability has nothing to do with that. Liability coverage makes up 2/3 of my policy cost.
That may be true about liability, but I’ve found the biggest jumps in insurance always come when I change to a newer car. That’s because comprehensive is the one place you can save on costs (ie on really old cars you can opt out entirely since it’s not worth fixing if car is in an accident). Of course when you get a loan, you *must* get enough coverage to cover the loan and since newer cars cost more, you need to pay more to cover that cost.
1) That’s a 33% rise, not 25.
2) No one is forced to buy top end vehicles.
3) Got shares in insurance cos? If that’s where the profits are, it will show in share value.
“No one is forced to buy top end vehicles.”
Nope. Instead, Americans can live like Argentinians. In fact, in about 20 years, they will. And then, in another 10, they’ll live, and die, like starving Venezuelans.
And all that; just so that the dumbest and least productive, can pretend;and wholly unjustly benefit from; the trivially obvious nonsense that there exists ANY legitimate justification for either government, the legal rackets or the financial/ownership ditto comprising even a sliver more than 5% of their current share of economic activity.
Here’s another contributing factor: The percentage of uninsured motorists increased from 11.1% in 2019 to 14.2% in 2021, before slightly declining to 14.0% in 2022 (source: Insurance Research Council). This represents a roughly 27% increase in just three years.
The more the merrier. That whole racket is nothing but another pointless shakedown exercise in the first place. Noone was forced to pay “insurance” to mount a horse, back when America still aspired to be a civilized country. That was a feature.Not a bug. It’s what made America a country worth giving a toot about.
Way to ignore floods. No climate change there after nearly a decade of drought. Next up is a mini ice age in the northeast and midwest after the Atlantic oscillating current slows to a crawl.
clowns will continue to ignore climate change right up to the moment they are choking to death from fungal infections.
link to nbcnews.com
Yes but what does Taylor Swift think about this?
It’s nice how you lying climate change scumbags link to your sources. Every time the source is just another propaganda outlet.
What exactly is the lie? That fungal infections aren’t growing exponentially? Gee what makes fungus grow? Could it be warmer and more wetter/humid climate?
Here is what’s going to happen as there is more flooding and warmer temperatures:
1. More flooding = more fungus and mosquitos
2..More fungus = more infections and deaths and higher cost (medical costs, lost labor, etc).
3. More mosquitos = more diseases like malaria, zika, west nile, dengue –> you can google and read about the growth of all of these diseases across america. This too will result in more medical cost, lost labor and other ancillary costs.
4. I will profit because I am positioning for all of this over the next 5 to 10 years and the long term.
5. I am stock piling anti-malarial and anti-fungal and other drugs so I can be ready when SHTF.
6. When people come begging me for some of my drugs, I’ll screen out the anti-climate idiots in my family and tell them I’m all out and let them die and the educated people, like me, will get some salvation.
Believe whatever you want and do nothing and pretend everything is ok, let’s see how that turns out. If I am wrong about all of this, I lose a few bucks but if I’m right, I’ll be a lot richer, healthier and safer.
Choo! Choo! That’s the sound of the sensible and prepared train leaving the station.
Here’s link about the CDC warning. Note that this is a different fungus from the other one I posted. I won’t tell you where to track malaria or other disease because at some point you gotta learn to do this all by yourself or win a Darwin award.
link to cdc.gov
CDC???? Bwahahahahahahahaha…
That train rolled over your head.
Mini ice age, that would be great. We have had to cancel our U.P. 200 sled dog race two years, in a row. (:>).
I am a USAA client and in the last five years the entire operation has gone into the dumper. They expanded the allowable client base and the risk portfolio as well. Then they sold off the stocks and mutual funds and it seems that there is only a paper machete covering of the old using a clown show from Cleveland as the bag holder.
Sort of off topic, but I’ve been looking at dozens of property markets nationwide and noticed property taxes have not caught up with the 20%+ inflation we’ve had over the past 4 years. There seems to be a lag, but I expect this to be the next inflation headline.
Mine have. They went up 55%.
My property insurance went up 40% and car insurance 30% (and property tax went up 110%). As a retiree, my income is limited so increases are much more painful than they were years ago. It will come to the point that I return to renting and sell the 2yr old paid-off pickup for a 10yr old beater.
You will own nothing and eat ze bugs.
Geico raised my auto premium from $500 to $800 for six months coverage. Progressive was the only place that could keep me close to $500.
`I reduced all of my GEICO coverages to minimums with maximum deductibles and it still went from $370 to $420 for six months. I have driven for 54 years with no tickets/accidents and have been with GEICO for 10 years. I am getting ready to dump them.
Insurance is a form of socialism. Everyone pays into it and when something bad happens, everyone shares in the cost. The best way to escape socialism and high auto insurance cost is obviously not to design your life around owning a car. I know that last statement is heresy here for so many “entitled” to “owning” and driving a car but that’s the new reality. Wait till gun owners need to start carrying an insurance policy for misuse of a firearm….that’s coming and you heard it here first.
My life is designed around InstaCart, Uber Eats, Amazon and when I need a short term ride Uber/Lyft or long term ride it’s Hertz or some other car rental agency. I did the man and I save tens of thousands each year.
The big joke on everyone that hates EVs is that non-EV drivers are subsidizing EV driver’s insurance because their car repairs are far higher than those of ICE cars. So if you’re gleeful that EV owners are getting shafted on crash repairs well the joke is on you because you’re paying for it. Lol!
As for how I am profiting from all this mess, well let’s just say I have a few insurance companies stock in my portfolio and raking in the dividends and capital appreciation. Choo! Choo!
“… .not to design your life around owning a car….My life is designed around InstaCart, Uber Eats, Amazon…”
Hmmm….I wonder how all those deliveries arrive at your home? Horse and buggy, or maybe by bicycle?
they arrive by car or UPS/Fed Ex truck so far. I assume Fedex/UPS either self-insure or negotiate on economies of scale. As for the Uber guys, they probably pay high insurance anyway because they are commercial drivers.
If Uber were smart, they would negotiate a national auto insurance rate for all their drivers but I can’t consult to fix everyone’s problems, Uber will eventually figure that out.
Have your builder puts expired yet? How’d you do?
Yes, I lost $20k. Wrote about it a few times already.
Why would you ever need gun insurance unless you plan on shooting someone? Unlike car insurance (where someone else can hit you) or home insurance (where hurricanes, fires and other acts of god are beyond one’s control) you are 100% in control of your gun and if you aren’t, you shouldn’t be a gun owner.
i don’t make the laws Tim, I just profit off of them.
Nobody “plans” on shooting someone – unless it is in self defense but you need liability insurance for that possibility. I pay $180/yr for it and consider it crucial because I am trained and conceal carry. Maybe you don’t read/watch the news – but paying at least $75,000 to defend yourself in court in a self defense case is too high a price to pay for your freedom.
If you are saying you will NEVER shoot your firearm to defend yourself – then maybe YOU shouldn’t be a gun owner.
Why bitch about a 4% increase in home insurance?
At what percentage increase should one start to bitch in your view? For some any increase is to much when you factor in the rising costs of everything else.
3.b. The lag time for replacement parts to be available and / wait time for shop to do the work drives insurance cost, too, including cost of rental car until your car is repaired.
Car insurance more than doubled this annual renewal in CA. I don’t know how insurance alone tips us into recession let alone food, shelter, health, and energy.
Chicago: 33% increase last summer ($1800 to $2500) for the building. For what? And just this month, 6-month insurance for the two cars werent increased all that badly, but what was new was the increase in the pay-by-the month “fee,” which went from $4 a month extra to $26 a month extra (550% increase), for not paying the premium in full. Allstate ARGH!
I wouldn’t have Allstate insurance if it was free. My brother in law was an attorney for them for over 25 yrs.
You would save 15% or more if you paid every 6 months, instead of monthly.
I dont have all the money you have ;p
Let me guess … it is the wages prices spiral that pushes up prices in a highly monopolistic industry … so let’s have people lose their jobs and go bankrupt on top of hailing to pay higher insurance premiums. Note that auto and healthcare insurance premiums do not give a damn about demand: they rise prices because ‘they can’.
The magics of neoliberal ‘free markets’ economics..
They raise prices because potato head unleashed an unprecedented spending tsunami that jacked up the cost of everything to the moon including insured losses.
Why the insult to the potato?
Can confirm all of this. Not only are rates up drastically but coverage levels are dropping. The FEDERAL RESERVE owns another complete financial blunder.
F THE FED
F THE FED
F THE FED
I despise FED criminals
Blaming the FED is a scapegoat excuse. You do understand, don’t you, that they only control short-term rates. The FEDS DO NOT make policy! The FEDS responds to policy. If you want to hate a group try Congress. They are the ones who make the national debt, not the FEDS.
So the Federal Reserve played no part in creating $13 trillion dollars out of thin air in the past 4 years that has created all this inflation? Do you work for the NSA or something?
It’s a little like an abusive alcoholic and his enabler spouse. Sure she’s not the one getting puking drunk and kicking the dog. She just keeps making sure to clean up his messes so he can continue to get away with it. The Fed in this metaphor is the one cleaning up the puke off the floor and calling in fake sick days to his boss.
“It’s Trump’s fault.”
Trump is the reason the US was willing to elect Biden. To that extent it is his fault.
We’d never have had Bidenomics without Trump.
The left railroaded Trump by accusing and framing him for crimes he did not commit. Had the left worked with him rather than against him he would have been re-elected rather than Biden getting in.
Trump didn’t perpetuate the election fraud – the Deep State machine and Democrats did that. Trump and America are the victims.
Partly, yes you are correct! Trump was/is reckless, irresponsible and careless when it came to and comes to the nations finances ! Just like Bush, Obama, and of course Biden!!
“And also, systemic racism and climate change.” -CNN, probably
I am also sure health insurance premiums are rising quite a bit also. I am certain the economic politburo puts out their desired statistics regarding insurance premiums
I dumped “Health Insurance” in 2021 when the mandated bioweapons were deployed on the population and the Healthcare industry supported them. I lost all trust in 95% of doctors/nurses. I take care of my own health, use holistic treatments when needed and have cash in case I need urgent care for broken bones, etc. I won’t support that cabal.
Just got our USAA bill – up 40%. Reason: USFS control burn (CAVE CREEK FIRE) that destroyed thousands of acres.
Shop your insurance again. Don’t assume USAA is the best deal. Their premiums are all over the place.
This is true, but in my experience USAA has superb customer service which, in my view., is worth a bit of a premium.
With insurance one hopes one never needs to use the customer service.
True, but with insurance you NEED to know that should you need to make a claim, the insurer will graciously honor their contract in order to keep you, your family, and your friends’ business, rather than giving you the runaround.
This….
You cannot repair an electric vehicle after the fire.
People are trying everything they can to reduce costs. They are dropping coverage amounts that aren’t sufficient to cover damages. We had to file a claim under our auto insurance because the person who was responsible for the accident only had $20,000 of total coverage and he hit two vehicles. The damage on our car was $15,000. The damage to the other vehicle was over $10,000. We had to pay our $750 deductible AND our insurance rate increased because of this.
Very sorry to hear that.
These days 10 and 15K damage on a car is nothing. If you scratch the paint it’s practically that amount on any newer vehicle.
Most people these days are probably under covered on their car insurance and they might not even know it because replacing a new vehicle these days pretty much starts at 50K and rapidly gets to 100K and most policies aren’t covering for anywhere near that.
I’ve often felt the minimums are a joke and should have yearly increases, perhaps CPI related, as low as that would be. Fundamentally someone with no assets or ability or desire to work can take a great deal of what you have, with no recourse. If you however, having worked and saved and been productive, caused such harm to a near-do-well, there are many attorneys waiting to work on commission and take what can be taken.
If all had to buy the same insurance to drive, say 100/300 min, I’m guessing 20-30% of the drivers couldn’t afford it? Isn’t that we have all these billion dollar light rail boondoggles? It would be nice to see actual people riding them instead of them being hobo transport machines.
“…there are many attorneys waiting to work on commission and take what can be taken…”
One only has to watch 15 minutes of day time weekday TV to confirm this. Almost every commercial is an ambulance chasing attorney. At least in my area it is.
Unfortunately, coverage minimums in most states have not been adjusted to account for the massive increases in the cost of vehicles and vehicle repairs over the past few years.
To complicate things even more, I suspect that if states were to try and raise the minimums, they will get a lot of pushback from citizens due to the effect of the increased minimums are going to have on premiums.
That is where no-fault auto insurance is better. Coverage is not limited by the other guys coverage or lack of coverage (uninsured drivers). Your insurance covers you. Since I seldom file a claim, the last one I had the company did not even require me to pay my deductible. Big premium increases mean it pays to get a quote from an agency that carries many companies. That way you get the lowest premium based on your insurance score. My policy comes due this June. Price shock may mean I need to get a new quote.
No fault insurance might make sense now. Seems like it was comparatively more expensive in the past, and I’m not sure if I understand it correctly.
I’ve got geico, and two and a half tons of steel around me with a couple of instructive dents to warn the inattentive drivers to keep a distance.
House insurance? I rent cheaply from distant siblings, 390 steps to the Gulf of Mexico, house had chest-deep water during Katrina, and it’s elevated three feet. Anytime there’s a storm in the Gulf, I’m packed and ready to run and never return. Meanwhile, most of the new houses that are replacing the houses that were destroyed during the storm are slab on grade and nearer to the water than me ? No wonder insurance is so high.
State farm, Allstate, and USAA will always have an evil reputation around here after Katrina when they denied wind claims and called them storm flood. I had friends who lost everything and received no insurance payment because the insurance companies have expensive lawyers to keep them from honoring their contracts. One took his own life. Many just disappeared after losing their houses and I’ve never heard from them again. I know now that if there’s another storm like Katrina, I don’t have the energy to rebuild again, and I will be going somewhere else for good too. The destruction destroys your soul, until you’ve experienced it you probably wouldn’t believe the effects it has.