And what is the square footage of your home? I think my agent is taking me to the cleaners. Last year, I paid $118 a year to insure 660 sq. ft. in CA with a $500 deductible. This year, the renewal is going to cost me $413.39 a year with a $1000 deductible. The difference is that my HOA is no longer covering damages to the inside of the unit. If a water pipe above my head breaks, I would be screwed but do I need a 81,000 limit? 60,750 limit for personal property? I wish I had that much stuff. 32,400 for loss of use?? I know it's better to be safe than sorry so am I overreacting?
qcumber98 said: Corganiacs said: are you talking about rental insurance or home insurance? thats a small home
/increases the font size on your computer/ See thread title. Yeah, but I have to start somewhere.
Um...you're talking $118 a month or six months or year or what? I can understand corgs question, because a decent CONDO here (900-1200 SF) costs around $3-4K a year to insure. S.Fla, btw.
LostConsumer said: qcumber98 said: Corganiacs said: are you talking about rental insurance or home insurance? thats a small home
/increases the font size on your computer/ See thread title. Yeah, but I have to start somewhere.
Um...you're talking $118 a month or six months or year or what? I can understand corgs question, because a decent CONDO here (900-1200 SF) costs around $3-4K a year to insure. S.Fla, btw.A year. I guess I prefer an indecent condo.
The cost of home insurance has risen to completely obscene levels in Florida. A special session of the Legislature was more for show then helping lower rates. Only time will tell, but it's bad.
overama
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 2, 2007 @ 4:24a
As stated several times recently, homeowners insurance rates have been dramatically underpriced for years - recent catastrophic weather events (i.e. Katrina for one) have proven this.
Before people come back with "But some insurance companies are still making a killing and huge profits", you're right, but it is not based on h/o insurance - companies like State Farm are boing well because of profits in other areas (i.e. auto insurance). Companies that are h/o insurance only are getting killed and going bankrupt.
Q - think how underpriced $118/year is to replace your home? H/O insurance should be thought of as insurance for catastrophies.
The rest of the coverage you have are all standard percentages (i.e. personal property is generally 75%/80% of what they are insuring the home for).
This is a house, not a condo? I have a family room that is a 3rd the size of your house, and my ouse isn't that big.
I would shop around for other insurance companies and see what they will cover your condo for. The jump in price does not sound crazy considering the HOA is no longer covering damages like the upstairs neighbors pipe breaking scenario you described. I talked to 4 insurance companies b4 choosing a company to insure my townhouse.
Take it from someone who had a house fire that was a total loss- you do not, under and circumstances, want to find yourself under-insured if the sheet hits the fan.
zzyzzx
Senior Member - 3K
posted: Feb. 2, 2007 @ 8:21a
It sounds to me like you were paying the equivalent of renters insurance and are now having to pay the equivalent of homeowners insurance. And the price sounds fair to cheap to me. I live in Baltimore City, and pay about $400/year for homeowners insurance for a 812 sq ft rowhouse worth somewhere in the range of $80,000 - $120,000 and I have a $1000 deductable. I have my doubts as to if it's even possible to get homeowners insurance for less than $400/year.
We pay around $900 per year in Louisiana for a $500 deductible on a 1,800 sq ft home valued at $200k. I wish ours was as inexpensive as yours, but we have hurricanes to keep ours high. That said, we are able to go through Armed Forces insurance because my wife's father retired from the Army. We're paying about 1/2 of what most of the people in the state are paying.
I pay $950 for a 1700 square foot home in Omaha, NE with a $1000 deductible. The only natural catastrophe we have around here are tornadoes (VERY rare) and hail.
I'm glad this was posted...I thought maybe mine which just went up to $1000 for a 2400sf house with $500 deductible in NY was high...I don't think it is now seeing these numbers.
Jstkiddn
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 2, 2007 @ 9:38a
I just paid ours last week. $1,475/year for a 3,600 sq. ft home in Arkansas. (insurance valued it $360ish) $1000 deductable.
Every year they go up a little more. They keep stating that building costs have risen, blah, blah, blah. This year it went up 6.9%
I'm paying around $800/year (including multi-policy discount) with State Farm to insure an 1100 square foot townhouse in Baltimore County.
So $400 seems hella cheap. Heck, when I had renters insurance before I bought a house, I was paying around $120/year (which was still less than the multi-policy discount I got on my car insurance, so it was a no-brainer), so the fact that you wre getting homeowners insurance for less than that is mind-boggling to me.
We pay $105 a year for renters insurance here in PA. Large two bedroom home. With homeowners, do you get discounts for being near fire departments, having fire extinguishers and smoke detectors??
bozo007 said: trksh22 said: With homeowners, do you get discounts for being near fire departments, having fire extinguishers and smoke detectors?? Yes.
I've heard home security like Brinks or ADT will bring down your insurance immensely
You may want to speak with other residents to see what they are paying to get comparison pricing.
Jstkiddn
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 2, 2007 @ 10:49a
DenverDiver said: bozo007 said: trksh22 said: With homeowners, do you get discounts for being near fire departments, having fire extinguishers and smoke detectors?? Yes.
I've heard home security like Brinks or ADT will bring down your insurance immensely
We have a monitored burglar and fire alarm system and it gives us a 12% discount.
We have a monitored burglar and fire alarm system and it gives us a 12% discount.
Wow! *takes notes to remember this when she buys a house* Wait, how does this compare to the monthly service fee or does that even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Jstkiddn
Senior Member - 2K
posted: Feb. 2, 2007 @ 11:36a
trksh22 said: Jstkiddn said:
We have a monitored burglar and fire alarm system and it gives us a 12% discount.
Wow! *takes notes to remember this when she buys a house* Wait, how does this compare to the monthly service fee or does that even matter in the grand scheme of things?
Well, in my case we pay $18/month for monitoring....so $216/year. More than our 12% discount Ours is a local company, so I'm not sure how much the Brinks, ADT, etc. charge for service.
read the policy and see what the coverage will include...are there things that you would like to increase the coverage on...is this replacement cost insurance ???? There is more to the cost than sq footage...IMO you might find out that this is only mortgage balance pay off insurance ????
snochybchy
Senior Member
posted: Feb. 2, 2007 @ 8:35p
$525/yr for 2500sf $125,000 home in central illinois.
$2,305 for a 948sq ft villa in south florida. Thats through Citizens insurance, the only company that is writing policies for the current time down in florida now. Ded. is $1000 and wind damage ded. (aka hurricanes) is 2% of home value.
"With homeowners, do you get discounts for being near fire departments, having fire extinguishers and smoke detectors??"
That depends a lot on your FD, how old their equipment is, how many trucks they have & how old those are, how long it takes on average to get to a home, etc. I forgot what that rating was called but our city has one.
I pay about $600 a year to insure an approx. 1400 square foot home in Northridge, CA (built in 1997). Also, about $500 a year for earthquake insurance. The earthquake policy has a $10,000 deductible, with poor personal property coverage, but I still need it. If the house is totaled by a quake, I'll manage. But if the house is totaled by the quake without that insurance, that would really set me back.
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