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Home Insurance Cost Calculator

Estimate your annual and monthly premium from your state, rebuild coverage, deductible, and the handful of factors carriers actually rate on. We show every multiplier we apply, so you can check the arithmetic instead of trusting a black box.

Educational calculators — always consult a licensed professional before making financial decisions.

Your home

01State

The estimate starts from your state's published average premium, then adjusts it for everything below.

State average $4,582/yr at $300,000 dwelling coverage.

Texas average $4,582/yr · +66% vs. national

02Coverage and deductible

Insure for below about 80% of rebuild cost and a coinsurance clause trims every payout, small ones included.

How much dwelling coverage do you need?

This is rebuild cost, not market value or your purchase price.

Tap to edit
1000001500000
What deductible?

The fastest lever you control — going from $1,000 to $5,000 cuts roughly a fifth off the premium.

The most common choice, and our baseline.

03The house

Past about 20 years, many carriers decline a roof outright or pay only its depreciated value on a claim.

How old is the home?

Older homes cost more to insure — wiring, plumbing, and roof condition.

Our baseline.

How old is the roof?

Rated separately from the home, and it matters more than most people expect.

Our baseline.

04Credit and claims

In most states credit moves the premium more than anything about the house. Two claims in five years commonly triggers non-renewal.

What's your credit like?

Ignored automatically in states that ban credit-based insurance scoring.

Our baseline.

Claims in the last five years?

Including claims filed by the previous owner on this address.

Also earns a claims-free discount.

05Discounts

Applied as multipliers, so two discounts compound rather than add.

Bundle with auto insurance?

Usually the largest discount available — around 12%.

No bundling discount applied.

Monitored security system?

A professionally monitored system, not a self-monitored camera.

No alarm discount applied.

06Housing payment

Optional. Set it to $0 if you own outright or would rather skip the share-of-payment figure.

Tap to edit
mo
08000

Estimated annual premium

$4,178

$348/month · Texas

Texas average$4,582/yr
vs. national average+66%
Share of monthly payment15.8%

How we got there

Texas average at $300,000 dwellingbase$4,582
Rebuild coverage$300,000 vs. the $300,000 baseline×1—
Deductible$1,000 vs. the $1,000 baseline×1—
Home age16–30 years×1—
Roof age6–10 years×0.97-$137
Credit tierGood (670–799)×1—
Claims in last 5 yearsNone×1—
DiscountClaims-free 5+ years×0.94-$267
Estimated annual premium$4,178

What a different deductible would cost

DeductibleAnnual premiumvs. yours
$500$4,679+$501
$1,000$4,178current
$2,500$3,718save $460
$5,000$3,301save $877
$10,000$2,841save $1,337

Holding every other factor constant. Many coastal states apply a separate percentage-based hurricane or wind deductible that this does not cover.

What drives rates in Texas

  • Hurricane and tropical wind
  • Tornadoes
  • Hail storms
  • Coastal flooding

This is a model, not a quote. Carriers rate on dozens of factors we cannot see, including your exact address, construction type, distance to a fire hydrant and station, and their own appetite for risk in your area. Treat this as a sanity check on quotes you receive, and always get at least three.

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Email me the detailed report

A full PDF breakdown of these numbers — yours to keep or hand to a contractor.

Educational estimate only — not an insurance quote and not advice. State averages are published by Insurance.com at $300,000 dwelling; the rating factors applied on top are RealCostIQ's own documented model, not any carrier's rating plan. Actual premiums depend on your exact address, construction type, distance to fire protection, and each carrier's own appetite. Always get at least three quotes.

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What you'll need

  • Your state — the single biggest factor
  • Rebuild cost, not market value or purchase price
  • The deductible you want to compare
  • Roughly how old the home and the roof are

What you'll get

  • Annual and monthly premium — With your state's average for comparison
  • Every factor, itemized — The full arithmetic, not a black box
  • Deductible trade-off table — $500 through $10,000, side by side
  • Share of your housing payment — The number escrow hides

The number escrow hides

Most homeowners pay insurance through escrow, which means it disappears into a single monthly figure and never gets examined. That is how premiums doubled over five years without most people noticing until their escrow shortfall letter arrived.

So this calculator reports your premium as a share of your total monthly housing payment. In much of the country that is a few percent. In parts of Florida, Louisiana, and Oklahoma it now rivals property tax, and for a homeowner sitting on a 3% mortgage it can exceed the principal and interest. That ratio, not the raw dollar figure, is what tells you whether insurance has become an affordability problem rather than a line item.

The four things worth acting on

  • Your deductible. The fastest lever you control. Going from $1,000 to $5,000 typically cuts around a fifth off the premium, and it matches how you should use the policy anyway — filing small claims is counterproductive. Before filing one, run the claim-versus-surcharge arithmetic and check your CLUE report.
  • Your credit. In most states this is a larger factor than anything about the house, with roughly a 2.1x spread between good and poor. Seven states ban it. If your credit improved since you last shopped, re-quote.
  • Your roof. Past 20 years, carriers start declining outright or quietly switching roof claims from replacement cost to actual cash value — which pays the depreciated value of an old roof, not a new one.
  • Whether you are actually covered for rebuild. Coverage should equal rebuild cost, not market value. Fall below about 80% of it and a coinsurance clause reduces every payout proportionally, including small ones.

How we calculate this

Full methodology and every multiplier we apply+

We start from a published state average and apply our own documented multipliers. The base figures are third-party data, attributed below. Everything applied on top is RealCostIQ's model — not any carrier's rating plan — and every value is listed here so you can reproduce the result by hand.

Base data

Average annual premium by state at $300,000 dwelling with a $1,000 deductible, from Insurance.com — Average homeowners insurance rates by state (Rate Analysis 2026). National average across the 51 jurisdictions: $2,765. Config version 2026-08-17.

Coverage scaling

Premium scales as (your coverage ÷ $300,000) raised to the power 0.85. The exponent is below 1 because fixed expenses — policy issuance, adjusting overhead — do not scale with the limit, so doubling coverage costs less than double.

Deductible

$500×1.12
$1,000×1
$2,500×0.89
$5,000×0.79
$10,000×0.68

Home age

0–5 years×0.87
6–15 years×0.94
16–30 years×1
31–50 years×1.11
Over 50 years×1.24

Roof age

0–5 years×0.9
6–10 years×0.97
11–15 years×1.06
16–20 years×1.18
Over 20 years×1.35

Credit tier

Excellent (800+)×0.82
Good (670–799)×1
Fair (580–669)×1.35
Poor (below 580)×2.11

Claims in last 5 years

None×1
1 claim×1.2
2 claims×1.48
3 or more×1.85

Discounts (multiplicative)

Bundle with auto×0.88
Monitored security system×0.95
Impact-rated roof×0.93
Claims-free 5+ years×0.94

What we deliberately do not do

  • Apply credit-based insurance scoring in CA, MA, MD, MI, HI, OR, or WA, where it is banned or heavily restricted.
  • Model separate percentage-based hurricane or wind deductibles, which several coastal states apply on top of the standard deductible.
  • Publish a year-over-year change figure. We do not hold a per-state series we trust enough to publish one, and we would rather ship no column than a fabricated one.
  • Blend figures across studies. Each reference below uses a different methodology, and mixing them produces incoherent comparisons.

Reference points

Published national averages disagree by hundreds of dollars, and the disagreement is almost entirely methodology rather than error. Studies that standardize on a fixed dwelling amount land lower; studies weighted by each state's actual home values land higher. We list them separately rather than averaging them into a single misleading figure.

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Frequently asked questions

How much is homeowners insurance per year?

Published 2026 national averages range from roughly $2,400 to $3,100 depending on the study, and the gap is almost entirely methodology rather than disagreement. Studies that standardize on a fixed dwelling amount, such as $300,000 or $350,000, land near the bottom of that band; studies that use each state's actual home values land near the top. The spread between states is far larger than the spread between studies — Florida averages many times what the cheapest states do.

Why has my home insurance gone up so much?

Three things compounding. Rebuild costs rose sharply, so the same house costs far more to put back up than it did five years ago. Severe weather losses increased, particularly from hail and wind, which are now larger claim categories than the headline hurricane events. And reinsurance — the insurance that insurers themselves buy — repriced hard, and that cost passes through to policyholders. LendingTree, using regulator rate-change filings, puts the cumulative increase at about 47% over 2020 to 2025.

How much dwelling coverage do I actually need?

Enough to rebuild the home from scratch at today's local labor and material prices — not the market value and not what you paid. Rebuild cost excludes the land, so in most markets it is below market value, though in some older or rural areas it can exceed it. Underinsuring is expensive in a way that is easy to miss: most policies contain a coinsurance clause that reduces every payout proportionally if you are covered for less than about 80% of rebuild cost, so being underinsured hurts on small claims too, not just total losses.

Does raising my deductible actually save much?

Yes, and it is the fastest lever you control. Moving from a $1,000 to a $5,000 deductible typically cuts around a fifth off the premium. It also matches how you should be using the policy anyway, since filing small claims is counterproductive — two claims within five years commonly triggers non-renewal. The test is simply whether you could comfortably pay the deductible tomorrow. Note that many coastal states apply a separate percentage-based hurricane or wind deductible on top of your standard one.

Does credit affect home insurance rates?

In most states, heavily — published 2026 figures show roughly a 2.1x spread between good and poor credit on identical coverage, which is a bigger effect than almost any feature of the house itself. California, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington ban or heavily restrict credit-based insurance scoring, and this calculator drops the factor entirely for those states. If your credit has improved since you last shopped, re-quoting is often worth more than any other single change you can make.

Why does my roof age matter so much?

Roofs cause the majority of weather claims, so carriers rate them separately from the house. Past about 15 years the surcharge climbs steeply, and past 20 years many carriers either decline to write the policy at all or quietly switch roof claims from replacement cost to actual cash value. That second change matters enormously: actual cash value pays the depreciated worth of a twenty-year-old roof rather than the cost of a new one. Always ask which basis a quote uses before comparing prices.

What if no insurer will cover my home?

Most high-risk states operate an insurer of last resort — Florida's Citizens Property Insurance Corporation and California's FAIR Plan are the best known. These provide more limited coverage at higher cost and are meant as a backstop rather than a first choice, so it is worth working through an independent agent who can access surplus-lines carriers before defaulting to one. Reducing the risk itself often reopens the standard market: a new impact-rated roof, wildfire defensible space, or documented wiring and plumbing updates can make a previously uninsurable home quotable again.

From the blog

How Much Flood Insurance Do You Need? Coverage Amount, NFIP Limits and Whether to Buy It Outside a Flood Zone

Flood insurance has two limits, $250,000 for the house and $100,000 for belongings. This post shows how to pick your own amounts, what each zone costs, and whether to buy outside a mapped flood zone.

Should You File a Small Homeowners Claim? The Deductible-Versus-Surcharge Arithmetic, What a CLUE Report Holds and for How Long, and How to Get Yours Free

Triple-I says a CLUE report goes back five years; the Texas Department of Insurance says seven. Neither publishes a surcharge. Here is the break-even arithmetic at named inputs, what the regulators say about inquiries, and how to pull your own report free.

Unpermitted Work on a House You're Buying or Selling: What the Appraiser Reports, What the Lender Can Require, What Legalising It Costs, and What Your Insurer May Say

Fannie Mae's guide gives the appraiser one sentence on additions without permits and no lender consequence. The real gatekeepers are zoning legality, the appraiser's value call and your insurer's policy wording. Here is what each source actually says.

Condo Insurance (HO-6) vs the HOA Master Policy: What You Insure Yourself

The association insures the building; you insure what it does not. Where that line falls depends on one sentence in your governing documents. Here is how to find it, size your HO-6, and meet the lender's condo insurance rules.

How Much Homeowners Insurance Does Your Mortgage Lender Require?

The lender does not pick a number. It tests your policy against replacement cost, a deductible ceiling and a named-mortgagee clause. Here is each test, the flood exception, and what Massachusetts law says about a lender asking for more.

Escrow Shortage: Why Your Mortgage Payment Went Up and What to Do

Your principal and interest did not change, but your payment did. Here is how the annual escrow analysis produces a shortage, what your servicer may and may not demand, and how to check the math.

Home Insurance Cost Calculator is built and maintained by the RealCostIQ editorial team. Cost ranges and rates are checked against published industry data and contractor quotes, and revised when the underlying figures move. Read our data methodology or more about who builds this. Every calculation runs in your browser — no account, and none of your inputs are stored.

Cost ranges and rates here are checked against contractor quotes and published industry data. If a number still looks off, email Support@RealCostIQ.com and we'll review and fix it.