This is for my own house. My house insurance has gone up every single year since I've owned this house (10 Years). Because they keep raising the value of the property due to "replacement costs". Ok, this is not a mansion, it's a small (1100 sq ft) one story home, 27 years old, with a finished basement. Nothing special about it, just normal grade finishes, etc. It's in Ohio. They have the place insured for 7 TIMES what I paid for it 10 years ago (it wasn't a fixer, it was move-in condition when I bought it). I have done some updates such as new windows, siding. But that's it. It has nothing to do with covering the mortgage, the house is almost paid off. I have a small outbuilding that we built for around $3K, which they now have insured for $41K "replacement cost". I'm perplexed. Any input?

Have much the same issue, over about the same time-frame. The two things my insureance company said when I called, were the zip code, and the cost of insurance in other states going up is being felt here. Really it's a crock.

My zip code covers both a township & a city. I live in the township part, and it has different crime rates, a different school system, different safety forces, etc than the city. The HI co won't take that into account, which is totally weird, cuz my auto insurance co does, and I get better rates for being in the TWP, than if I lived in the city.

As far as "sharing the wealth" I don't see why rates here have to go up when a disaster hits in Wyoming, or someplace, but they do. Or wherever a company may hold a lot of polices in a particular area. At least that's what they've told me.

I do know I'm tired of paying more for HI in an annual amount than my monthly mortg payment.

Your homeowners dwelling value is based on the cost of reconstruction on your dwelling. What you can do is make
sure that your insurance company is correctly valuing your
dwelling. How can you do this? Go to the following website:
www.accucoverage.com the cost is $7.95 BUT this allows YOU to
complete the information and see what value it is showing for
your dwelling. If the dwelling value is lower you can use this report to have your insurance company lower your dwelling limit.

Hope this helps you---

Value: If memory serve me correctly, the true value of a residential home for insurance purposes was as follows:

Land Value - plus the reproduction cost as new of the improvements thereon - less depreciation to determine the remaining economic life and the depreciated value of the various components of the improvements.

The issue with insurance companies regarding fire insurance was that they set their premiums on the total value of the home including the Land, which doesn't burn.

The insured might consider just insuring the home for the value of the reproduction cost as new and not the land.

Locally, insurance companies,in the past, have settled their fire claim by paying 80% of the depreciated value of the improvements.

Important Notice: This information is provided as basic educational information by the author and is not a substitute for the advice of an expert and/or the advice of a lawyer. There is NO representation as to legality, accuracy, correctness of the herein information and the reader is strongly urged to consult a lawyer in the relevant jurisdiction to ensure accuracy before acting on this information .

i had a client who faithfully paid his homeowners for years and then filed a claim for a slab leak. they corrected the proiblem and then promptly canceled his policy and he was put on a national data base that made him uninsurable.

There a good article about this on http://www.homeownersinsurance.org if you need more clarification.

Is it possible to change your insurance company and check for other rates to other companies.