What Factors Affect Your Homeowner’s Insurance Premiums and How to Lower Them

Various factors go into your homeowner’s insurance premiums, including your location, claims history, and credit-based insurance score.

Lowering your home’s risk exposure can help you save money on your policy. These include changing your exposure to windstorms and earthquakes, for example.

Location

The location of your home can affect your homeowner’s insurance premiums in several ways. This is due to several factors, such as your region’s unpredictable weather, crime rates, and proximity to first responders.

Choosing the best homeowners insurance Newark DE for you, can be challenging, especially if you are still determining how it will impact your premiums. But the good news is that a few changes can help lower your premiums without sacrificing coverage.

In geography, location refers to a point or an area on Earth’s surface or elsewhere. Generally, the term location implies a higher degree of certainty than place, which often has an ambiguous boundary relying on human or social attributes of place identity and sense of business rather than geometry.

In cinematography, a location is a site outside a studio where filming is done.

The location of your home is one of the most critical factors in determining your homeowner’s insurance premiums. It can impact how much you pay for home insurance and how quickly your property is restored after a loss.

Claims History

Claims history is essential in determining the cost of your homeowner’s insurance premiums. It helps insurers assess the risk of insuring a home and decide whether to issue a policy.

Your policy is logged into a CLUE – Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange database system whenever you claim it. This information is then consulted by all major insurance companies when they consider whether to offer you an insurance policy and set your rates.

Generally, more significant claims raise your premiums more than smaller ones because they represent a greater risk to insurance providers. This is especially true if you file a liability claim – where there is a possibility that you may be sued by someone who was injured on your property.

Keeping your home in good shape and filing claims quickly are the best ways to reduce your homeowner’s insurance costs. Consider raising your deductible to lower your monthly premiums.

Credit Score

Your credit score is essential in determining your homeowner’s insurance premiums. A poor credit score will result in significantly higher premiums than an average or good score.

Your payment history is a critical factor in your credit score, as is how long you’ve had a credit history and whether or not you pay bills on time. Your credit utilization is another factor that impacts your score.

Many scoring systems also look at your credit mix, a combination of several credit accounts in good standing. Large outstanding debt balances missed payments or collection accounts, and other negative factors will impact your credit score negatively.

A good credit score can help lower your home insurance premiums. Getting quotes from different insurers will allow you to compare prices and choose the best policy for your needs.

Age of Home

The age of your home can affect your homeowner’s insurance premium. Older homes often have features and construction materials that are more costly to replace or repairs, such as plaster walls or ornate moldings.

You can get an idea of the age of your house by looking at its architecture and the building materials it uses, such as stone or wood. Sometimes, you can also use records such as tax files or deeds to determine their age.

The National Association of Home Builders reports that the average home age in the United States is 39. According to the organization’s Eye on Housing blog, this aging stock signals that a remodeling market is coming into play as homes need repairs or updated components.