Most buyers walking into a purchase already have a mental line item for property taxes. It's the cost everyone warns you about, the one your lender's estimate spells out down to the dollar months before closing. Home insurance, by comparison, tends to feel like an afterthought, a box to check somewhere between the inspection and the final walkthrough. That assumption is getting harder to justify. A new analysis from LendingTree found that in 15 states, the typical homeowner now spends more on insurance every month than on property taxes, in some cases by a wide margin.
That gap matters more this year than it might have five years ago. Mortgage rates are still sitting well above where most buyers hoped they'd be by now, which means monthly budgets are already tighter than they were during the low-rate years. Layering a bigger, less predictable insurance bill on top of that budget is a different kind of problem than a property tax bill that moves a little each year. Property taxes are set by a formula. Insurance is priced by a private company reading a risk map, and that map keeps getting redrawn.
Nationally, the balance still tips toward property taxes. The typical homeowner with a mortgage spends an estimated $311 a month on property taxes versus $200 a month on insurance, according to LendingTree's analysis of Census, FHFA and Freddie Mac data. But that split flips hard in certain states. In Tennessee, the ratio is close to two to one: an estimated $284 a month in insurance against $143 in property taxes. Alabama isn't far behind, with insurance running roughly double the property tax bill. Homeowners in thirteen other states, including Colorado, South Carolina, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Arizona and New Mexico, are in the same position, paying more to insure the house than to fund the schools and roads around it.
Zoom out to total housing costs and the picture gets sharper still. Insurance eats up an estimated 8.5% of the average monthly housing payment nationwide, but in Nebraska it's closer to one dollar in every five, the highest share of any state, followed by Oklahoma at roughly 17.6% and Texas at about 14.4%. Those aren't necessarily the priciest housing markets in the country. They're the ones facing the most hail, wind and severe storm risk, and insurers have been pricing that risk in for a while now.
So why does a landlocked, tornado-prone state end up with premiums that rival a coastal flood zone? It's worth understanding the mechanics rather than just accepting the bill as background noise. Premiums have climbed roughly 46% nationally since 2021, close to three times the pace of inflation, largely because severe weather claims have piled up faster than insurers priced for. When a carrier eats a bad wildfire or hurricane year in one state, it often raises rates more broadly to rebuild its cushion, not only in the specific area that got hit. That's part of why a buyer in Nebraska or Oklahoma can end up with a premium that looks a lot like one written for a house near the Gulf Coast.
There's also a quieter factor most buyers never hear about: reinsurance, the coverage insurance companies themselves buy to protect against catastrophic losses. When reinsurance gets more expensive globally, that cost tends to flow straight through to the premium a homeowner sees on a renewal notice, regardless of whether that particular house has ever filed a claim. It's a reminder that a rate increase in your state isn't always a verdict on your specific risk. Sometimes it's a wider industry reset landing on your doorstep.
None of this means insurance is suddenly unaffordable everywhere. It means the line item deserves the same scrutiny buyers already give the mortgage rate.
So What Does This Actually Mean If You're Buying Right Now?
As HouseJet sees it, the bigger risk isn't that insurance costs are rising. It's that too many buyers still don't find out what a policy will actually cost until after they're already under contract. A pre-approval letter tells you what you can borrow. It doesn't tell you what you'll actually pay to protect the place once you own it, and in a growing number of states, that gap is big enough to change the math on a monthly payment.
Here's the catch, though: rates aren't accelerating the way they were a couple of years ago. Premiums grew by roughly 6% last year, according to LendingTree, down from double-digit jumps in both 2023 and 2024. That's a genuinely useful data point if you've been bracing for another steep hike. It's not a sign that costs are coming back down, just that the pace of the climb has slowed in most of the country. In the highest-risk states, insurers are still adjusting policy by policy, and a calmer national average doesn't guarantee a smaller bill on a specific address.
Get a real insurance quote before you write an offer, not after. Most buyers wait until they're deep into the mortgage process to call an agent, sometimes not until underwriting asks for proof of coverage. Getting an actual quote on a specific address, before you're emotionally or financially committed to it, can save you from a payment surprise that shows up right when you have the least room to walk away.
Look at total monthly housing cost, not just principal and interest. A house with a lower price tag in a high-insurance state can end up costing more each month than a pricier house somewhere calmer. It's worth asking your lender or agent to show you the fully loaded number, mortgage, tax and insurance together, before you fall for a listing based on the sticker price alone.
Ask about mitigation discounts and shop more than one carrier. Impact-resistant roofing, updated electrical and plumbing, and storm shutters can all lower a quote, sometimes enough to matter over a year. Rates also vary more by carrier than most buyers expect, so getting two or three quotes on the same house isn't overkill. In this environment, it's standard due diligence.
If you already own a home in one of the states near the top of this list, this is worth a look too. Insurance renewal is one of those bills people let auto-renew without checking, and a short call to shop it can be worth more than most home improvement projects that get far more attention. It's the kind of number worth checking early, according to HouseJet, not something to leave for the week before closing.
None of this is a reason to avoid buying in a state with higher insurance costs. It's a reason to know the number before it becomes a surprise. The mortgage rate gets most of the attention because it's the figure everyone quotes back and forth. The insurance bill is quieter. In more and more of the country, though, it's carrying just as much weight.
