The 10 Most Expensive Suburbs For Home Insurance

Homeowners in the U.S. who want to both work in the big city and have a backyard with lots of free space, will more often than not choose the suburbs to live in. The price of insuring a suburban home varies depending on where it is, so how much would living in one suburban area compare to another in price?

Depending on your location, the coverage price for your home can vary hugely. Where your home lies can have a great effect on the cost of your home insurance. For example, a three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,000-square-foot home can cost up to three times as much on your coverage if your home is in a certain area. What impacts your price the most is the risk of natural disaster in the area that you live, the location’s insured loss history, the crime rate, and the local building costs.

10. Arlington (Dallas), Texas – Average Premium $1,761

The suburbs in Dallas are the most expensive to find coverage for your home. In the past ten years, the Dallas area has accumulated the highest cost of property damage, its repairs costing $1.601 billion. In some areas of Dallas, the insurance rates may be even higher due to the flood insurance requirements some properties will meet.

9. Lakewood (Denver), CO – Average Premium $1,379

Denver’s number of natural disasters is quite low, but despite this, the area experiences some of the most expensive property damage, reaching up to nearly $147.782 million in the last ten years. The Denver Convergence Vorticity Zone is something that Denver experiences throughout the area; it means that a place is particularly susceptible to high winds, tornadoes, and other forms of extreme weather. This makes the Lakewood suburban area, along with other Denver suburbs, an expensive place to find coverage for your home.

8. Highland Park (Chicago), IL – Average Premium $876

Highland Park is located on Lake Michigan, north of Chicago. The lake in this area acts as a managing force for temperature swings and storms, but it can also mean there is terrible snow and ice, making winters uninviting. This and the addition of construction costs in the area being the highest on the list keeps the insurance prices high in the Highland Park area. For example, a home in Highland Park that carries a $352,000 replacement cost would only cost $250,000 to replace in other cities.

7. Franklin (Nashville), TN – Average Premium $844

In the last ten years, there have been sixteen official natural disasters in this area. $1.593 billion has been reported in damages in this state from tornadoes, thunderstorms, and other various natural disasters. Contrary to this, the local construction costs are lower here than any other places in the country. This means the properties don’t need as much dwelling coverage as they would do if they were in other states on the list.

6. Hudson (New York City), NY – Average Premium $837

Hudson shares similar weather problems to New York, and it’s in between two extremes. Hudson has the lowest costs in property damage, which accumulates to $1.434 million in the last ten years. It also has the smallest number of weather events. Despite this, it has the highest number of major disaster declarations, and some of the priciest local construction costs. This balance of extremes is what keeps Hudson in the middle of the list.

5. Merion Station (Philadelphia), PA – Average Premium $704

There have only been seventeen total disasters in the last ten years for Pennsylvania; that’s the lowest on the whole list. This area generally sets low rates across the whole state, second to Arizona on this list. But the relatively high construction costs sometimes counteract the low risks of the area.

4. Alamo Heights (San Antonio) – Average Premium $702

Texas is vulnerable to tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, drought, wildfires, and thunderstorms. Since this area is prone to every major natural disaster and they cause considerable property damage, it means that the statewide rates are typically higher. San Antonio shares the top number of occurring natural disasters along with Dallas. Even so, Alamo Heights has got one of the lowest rates for home replacement costs, and this results in homeowners needing less dwelling coverage.

3. West Hollywood (Los Angeles), CA – Average Premium $684

West Hollywood experiences frequent dry spells, while these are terrible for local businesses, they don’t generally generate a great deal of insurance claims. In 10 years, there have only been nine natural disaster days where there has been an injury.

2. Chula Vista (San Diego), CA – Average Premium $628

There have very few natural disasters declared in Chula Vista by the FEMA. The suburb also has a very low crime rate. Chula Vista is great place to live as not only does it have low home insurance rates, it also has Mediterranean-style weather. The potential natural disasters that this suburb could suffer from are high winds, wildfires, floods, and earthquakes, but due to insurance losses being so low, insurance rates have stayed affordable.

1. Mesa (Phoenix), AZ – Average Premium $555

Mesa is mostly hot throughout the year, and not very prone to storm damage. Arizona has the lowest statewide rates out of all of the places listed. However, none of the areas looked at are free from natural disasters and losses. From time to time high winds, wildfires and floods can have effects on Arizona. Normal home insurance in Mesa doesn’t include flood damage, so that policy has to be purchased separately. Mesa overall has a low number of major natural disasters as well as low insurance claims. This helps keep the premiums down.