Rising costs of home repairs and your homeowners insurance: how one affects the other.
The cost of labor and construction materials has increased dramatically in the last five years due to inflation. This affects your insurance price because if you were to have a claim and needed to rebuild parts (or all) of your home, it would be MUCH more expensive to do that today. Insurance carriers would in turn be paying higher amounts to you when you file your claim.
With the continuous increase in rebuilding costs due to inflation, homes now require higher dwelling coverage limits to align with these escalating prices. This results in a rise in home insurance rates.
Here are some of the biggest factors that have increased to these rising repair costs:
1. More frequent weather events than ever before.
2. Costlier building materials.
3. Labor price increases.
4. Assertive and competitive contractors.
5. Supply chain disruptions and delays.
6. Open floor plans and multi-story constructions.
Here’s what it looks like in real numbers.
Check out these staggering statistics from our partners at Grange Insurance:
Additionally…
The price of single-family residential home construction materials have climbed 33.9 percent since the start of the pandemic, while trade services are up 27 percent.
As you can see, the numbers don’t lie. The cost of home repairs really has risen in the last five years – and it has most likely affected your home insurance premium.
So, what can you do to lower your insurance rates?
While it can feel like many of these things are out of your control, there are things that you can personally do to help lower your insurance bills.
- Get your policies coordinated. Do you have all of your polices with one agency? If not, you could be missing out on discounts. Coordinating your policies is one of the easiest ways to save money!
- Schedule a time to have a policy review with your agent. At The Agent Insurance, we offer an annual policy review with every one of our clients. This ensures that your coverage is up-to-date and we about check to make sure that you are receiving every possible discount.
- Check your discounts. Reach out to your insurance agent and let them know to ensure that you are receiving every insurance discount that you are eligible for.
- Consider adding additonal coverage to save you money down the road. It might make sense to add additional coverage on your auto policies now to help save you money down the road in the event of a claim. Things like “Premier Roadside Assistance” or “Premier New Car Replacement” coverage on your policy would help reduce your costs if you have an auto claim.
- Consult your agent before filing a small claim. In some cases, it might be better option for you to absorb the cost instead of filing a claim. Need help deciding if you should file a claim? Ask your insurance advisor.
We know that no one likes to see their rates increase. We are here to help. Give us a call at 540.334.4225 if you’d like us to review your policies.
A little more about The Agent Insurance Services…
The Agent Insurance Services is a full-service independent insurance agency. This allows us the ability to offer a full range of protection such as home and auto insurance, commercial insurance, and life insurance to all of our clients. To put it simply, we make sure our clients have the same coverages we have. Why would you want anything less? Our exceptional team of Protection Advisors offers professional advice and service you can afford. Please call us and tell us what is important to you. We’ll do the rest.