Construction, like almost every industry, seems to have been hit hard by inflation. From materials to labor and everything in between, the cost of building homes has skyrocketed over the past few years. Not only that, but home prices have also gone up. While we paid a relatively modest price for our home in August 2020, the appraised value (according to Zillow, at least) has increased by more than $100,000 in the past four years. That means rebuilding (in the event of a total loss) will cost more, too.
High insurance costs
Even knowing and understanding all this, I was shocked when I opened my annual homeowners insurance policy renewal notice. Annual fees had gone up more than $600 since last year. In fact, they’d more than doubled during the time we’ve lived here. Tracking our payments, we were in the $600 range for 2020 and 2021, then in the $700 range for 2022, all the way up to $900 for 2023. But the new 2024 policy renewal notice hit a staggering $1,566.
Compare Shopping
I ended up calling three different companies, and it turned out our price was very competitive. One company couldn’t beat it. Another beat it by hundreds of dollars, but with less coverage. The third company is the one we currently have a homeowners policy with. By adjusting some limits, they were able to get it down to $1,345 for the annual fee. A few hundred dollars in savings.
Time-cost trade-off
Granted, it took what seemed like a full day between the three phone calls (why do these kinds of calls take so long? Ugh!). At some point, I started to wonder if spending all my time on these phone calls was worth saving a few hundred dollars? Anyway, that’s over now. I was glad I was able to lower the price at least a little.
Has anyone else noticed a similarly large increase in their homeowners insurance? We have never had a claim, have great credit, have lots of security features in our home, etc. I was shocked that in such a short time our policy went up so much – literally doubling in just a few years! Has everyone been in the same situation?
The post Overpaying for Homeowners Insurance was first published on Blogging Away Debt.
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