Homeowners Insurance Cost by State

The gap, in real numbers

A standard homeowners policy, $300,000 in dwelling coverage, $300,000 in liability, and a $1,000 deductible, averages 2,872 a year nationally. That single number hides an enormous range. In Florida, the same coverage profile averages 8,471 a year.

In Hawaii, it averages just 738. That is roughly an 11x difference for identical coverage on paper, driven entirely by where the house sits.

This is not a Florida-versus-everywhere-else story either, which is the part that surprises most homeowners. Nebraska averages 5,513 a year. Colorado averages 5,511. Oklahoma averages 5,378. Kansas averages 5,289.

None of these states touch a hurricane coast. All four rank among the six most expensive states in the country for homeowners insurance, right behind Florida and just ahead of Louisiana at 5,185.

What actually drives the difference between states

Insurers price a homeowners policy around the cost of a total loss and how likely that loss is to happen, multiplied across every policy they write in a state. A handful of risk categories explain almost the entire gap between the cheapest and most expensive states.

Hurricane and named-storm exposure is the most visible driver, and it is why Florida, Louisiana, and several other Gulf and Atlantic coast states sit near the top of the list.

But convective storm risk, the tornado and severe hail systems that regularly move through the Great Plains and Midwest, does comparable damage in aggregate, which is exactly why Nebraska, Colorado, Oklahoma, and Kansas rank alongside the hurricane states rather than well below them. Hail alone can total a roof across an entire neighborhood in a single afternoon.

Rebuilding cost is a quieter factor. Labor and material costs to reconstruct a home vary by region, and insurers price a policy around what a full rebuild would actually cost in that specific market, not a national average.

States with a heavier reliance on specialty contractors, higher permitting costs, or supply chain distance from major material suppliers tend to run higher on this factor alone.

Litigation and claims environment matters more than most homeowners expect. States where lawsuits over claim denials or delays are more common, or where public adjusters and contractors more aggressively pursue claims on a homeowner's behalf, see insurers price in the added cost of defending or settling those disputes. Florida is the most frequently cited example of this dynamic nationally.

Finally, market competition itself affects price. When several major insurers pull back from writing new policies in a state, whether because of wildfire, hurricane, or flood losses, the insurers that remain face less competitive pressure to keep rates low, and remaining policyholders absorb more of the concentrated risk.

The most expensive states

Based on the same $300,000 dwelling coverage, $1,000 deductible profile used throughout this guide, the six most expensive states in the 2026 data are Florida (8,471), Nebraska (5,513), Colorado (5,511), Oklahoma (5,378), Kansas (5,289), and Louisiana (5,185).

Kentucky (4,471) and North Carolina (3,799) are not far behind, both driven by a combination of severe convective storm and, for North Carolina, hurricane exposure.

The least expensive states

Hawaii (738) is the clear outlier at the bottom, despite its own hurricane exposure, a reminder that a state average blends many factors industry sources do not fully break out publicly.

Vermont (1,017), Maine (1,299), New Hampshire (1,324), and Pennsylvania (1,434) round out the cheapest tier, all Northeast states with lower hurricane, hail, and wildfire exposure than the states at the top of the list.

What the $300,000 assumption means for your own number

Every figure above assumes 300,000 in dwelling coverage. If your home's rebuild cost is higher or lower than that, your actual premium moves roughly in proportion, though not perfectly linearly, since some policy costs (liability coverage, basic administrative fees) do not scale with dwelling value at all.

A $500,000 rebuild cost in a 2,872-average state will cost meaningfully more than the state average shown here, and a $200,000 rebuild cost will cost less. Use your state's figure as a baseline, then adjust for how your home's actual value compares to $300,000.

What you can control, regardless of your state

Two factors move your premium independently of geography, and neither requires living somewhere else. Masonry construction typically costs about 14% less to insure than frame construction of the same value, since masonry withstands fire better and insurers price that difference directly.

A roof replaced within the last 10 years typically earns roughly an 8% discount, since a newer roof is far less likely to leak or fail during a wind or hail event that an older roof would not have survived.

Your deductible choice matters too. Raising it from the standard $1,000 used in the figures above lowers your premium in exchange for covering more of a claim yourself if you ever file one, the same tradeoff that applies to auto insurance.

None of these levers change your state's baseline risk, but all three change what you personally pay within it.