When it comes to homeownership carrying costs, property taxes and homeowners insurance are among the most expensive and unavoidable. In recent years, insurance premiums in particular have risen across the U.S. largely due to climate change-driven natural disasters; increased claims tend to result in upped premiums for every market an insurer covers, rather than only the areas afflicted by said disasters.
Moreover, inflation has also seen costs on home-building materials and labor for home repairs increase.
In fact, new data from LendingTree finds that in 15 U.S. states, home insurance costs exceed property taxes.
“Insurance used to be an afterthought in the home-buying process for most shoppers,” said LendingTree Insurance Analyst Rob Bhatt in a statement. “In many areas today, the rising cost of home insurance is having an outsized influence over people’s buying power.”
For reference, the estimated national figure is that a typical homeowner spends $311 on property taxes and $200 on home insurance monthly. This means home insurance represents 8.5% of a typical homeowner’s monthly housing budget. In these states, that figure is flipped.
The full list of all 15 states where insurance costs more than taxes are: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee and West Virginia. Additionally, homeowners in Montana and Virginia spend the same amount on insurance and property taxes.
Of these states, Colorado has the highest unweighted home insurance premiums at $463 a month. This is reportedly due to high weather risks, ranging from hailstorms to wildfires. However, the states where homeowners insurance makes up the greatest percentage of a monthly housing budget are:
- Nebraska, where homeowners spend $413 a month on homeowners insurance, which is 19.4% of total monthly housing costs.
- Oklahoma: $278 on monthly insurance costs, 17.6% of total costs
- Texas: $331 on monthly insurance costs, 14.4% of total costs
- Arkansas: $200 on monthly insurance costs, 14% of total costs
- South Carolina: $259 on monthly insurance costs, 13.5% of total costs
Notably, despite West Virginia ranking No. 12 on this list, it is also one of the states with the lowest monthly home insurance costs. West Virginia had one of the highest poverty rates between 2020 and 2024.
The states with the lowest monthly insurance costs were, per the findings of LendingTree:
- Vermont ($77)
- Hawaii ($95)
- Delaware ($97)
- Maine ($107)
- West Virginia ($113)
The states with the greatest ratio between estimated monthly insurance costs and estimated monthly property taxes (meaning how high insurance costs are relative to property taxes) are:
- Tennessee: 1.99 ratio ($284 in insurance, $143 in property taxes)
- Alabama: 1.96 ratio ($182 in insurance, $93 in property taxes)
- Colorado: 1.92 ratio ($463 in insurance, $241 in property taxes)
- South Carolina: 1.92 ratio ($259 in insurance, $135 in property taxes)
- Arkansas: 1.74 ratio ($200 in insurance, $115 in property taxes)
LendingTree has previously found that home insurance rate increases slowed in 2025; compared to a 10.7% rate change in 2023 and a 12.5% in 2024, rates only increased 5.9% in 2025. Cited as a sign of potential market stabilization, the report underlines homeowner behavior (for instance, shopping around before a policy renewal or making home upgrades to lower insurance bills) as a key factor in managing rising insurance costs.
For the full report, click here.
