And I thought....

[noelH]

Had American Family home and auto for since the late 80's.  Only other insurance company I ever had a policy with has been State Farm with the exception of one year auto with Progressive. That was an interesting policy. Bait to switch, then jack up the rates.  Last Spring AMFam more than increased my vehicle rates. Zero citations and one comp claim in the past +20 years. So I went online to shop. Back to State Farm for a huge (hundreds of dollars) less for the identical policy.  Same now with home insurance. Everyone up in this region has seen a significant increase due to market value increases, the increased costs of building and labor. But AmFam's 75% increase was a joke.  Just like the auto policy. Again hundreds of dollars of savings.

In my search I google for some data. FL, assuming you can find insurance is expensive. IIRC, a $300,000 home runs ~$6000/year.  My tiny house is assessed at $330,000 replacement costs. I would find a $6000 house insurance hard to accept. But if the house was located within the city limits of Bayfield with a similar lake view on a tiny urban lot vs. a forested 40. Market value would be crazy overpriced making the insurance premium less painful if the market value holds at the time I decide to sell. 

[Frank B.]

A couple of things.  Insurance companies always inflate the replacement cost on an annual basis to raise the premium.  I told my agent the last time I would sell it to them for 25% less than their assessment and they could then resell it at a profit.  Silence.  In Florida, as in many places, it depends on where which equates to variations in risk.  My homeowners is one third my BIL's we both have about the same size home, he is in Harrison county, MS, I'm in Lee county, MS.  Harrison county is the coast, Lee county is 300 miles away from the coast.  In addition his named storm deductible is twice mine.  He, I, and another sibling family own a beach front home in Florida, that has been in the Family for fifty-two years, and was purchased by the last generation when they were about giving places away on the "Forgotten Coast". 1450 square feet and the Insurance is $12K. In that 52 years it has been knocked down twice, first by Opal, then twenty years later by Michael. In each case the present value of the total premiums paid exceeded the amount of the claim paid out, which was not nearly enough to actually do the rebuild.  That has to do with the flood insurance exclusion and Florida's restrictions on the use of out of state licensed contractors. So the insurance company was not hurt by us.  Wonder how often that is the case. At any rate none of us live in that house, use it a couple of times a year and it is a vacation rental to cover the insurance, and the $12k in taxes and the maintenance .  Sometimes we come out ahead, sometimes we don't on the renting.  And we have just recently finished paying ourselves back for the shortage due to Michael which was this time 2018.  One thing I believe, is that insurance companies do not lose money despite the claims or at least you can't prove it by me.

[noelH]

One of the issues with home insurance are all the limits and exclusions. Some are obvious. Like flood without a rider.  Others are a bit more complicated. Break out the "worksheets" and plug in the numbers to find out what your reimbursement might be. My steel roof is a specific. At least with AmFam it was a plus. Probably due to a durable material relative to the original asphalt shingle when it comes to hail, wind, snow, ice... Then with the latest policy a negative. No coverage unless it leaks water.  And then just a pro-rated percentage relative to the age. When you start reading the "fine print" the home insurance doesn't seem to cover much.

Paid off the mortgage back in '04 ~decade ahead of schedule.  Strong dislike for any debt.  When it comes to anything that has relatively rapid depreciation(vehicles, boats...) I pay cash v. loan. Options was to place that money into a self insurance fund.  Was considering Apple common stock. It was sub ~50 cents/share in todays dollars. Hind-sight. Probably made the wrong financial choice. 

AmFam coverage is available in only a limited number of states. Last time I checked IIRC, the only costal states were GA,OR,and WA. Though was the company relative to State Farm would have less high risk exposure. You would think then the premiums would be no more or less. Opposite in this case. At least for the next 12 months the savings by switching to State Farm is ~50%.

[Norm L.]

Commercial marine companies have moved to self-insurance and high deductibles at a fleet level, to avoid a maze of coverages on each vessel. The river company ACBL has over a 1000 hopper barges which can love a life of bumper cars.
It's been many years ago that insurance companies were good customers as we were frequently in on damage in a small collision or diesel engine damages.
They can still call us in just to document a damage and its cost so they can put the report in the file as it builds toward the fleet deductible.

[noelH]

Interesting graph.  Climate change impacts and profit margins. The more severe storms in denser populated areas. 
You cannot view this attachment.

There was another graph showing the net margins in MN, MT, and USA overall. Heard MN has had some real spikes recently. That graph showed the significant negative income in MN, MT relative to the slight losses overall in the USA.

[Norm L.]

Maybe Louisiana isn't on that list because our rates have been high and our increase over that period is not as significant as the other states. While the cost of a home is high in our area (there is just a finite amount of land around New Orleans) the highest homeowners cost has been insurance rates in the last year. Even in the city there are large variations by neighborhood. We have been okay being on the relatively high end of a street and raised 5'. Even during the huge flooding of Katrina this house will be at least 3' above such water.
Hurrican winds are a risk but flooding more. The latter is now affecting many states.