Illustration of five homes on a small residential street with lush lawns, trees, and foliage. Two homes are fully built, meaning they have adequate home insurance coverage. But three are only partially built, indicating the risk of being underinsured.

Daniel Fishel

Majority of US homeowners may not have enough insurance to rebuild after a disaster

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By

Pat HowardManaging Editor & Licensed Home Insurance ExpertPat Howard is a licensed insurance expert and managing editor at Policygenius. Pat has written extensively about the home insurance industry and his insights as a subject matter expert have appeared in several top tier publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Reuters. Pat has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

Published|5 min read

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With home construction costs hitting record highs in 2022, it’s more important than ever for homeowners to check if their insurance coverage is keeping up. [1] But a majority of homeowners haven’t reviewed, much less updated their policies in the last year — potentially leaving them without enough insurance to rebuild their home completely if it’s destroyed, according to the Policygenius Home Insurance & Inflation Shopping Survey.

Key findings

  • More than half of homeowners (56%) did not review their home insurance policy in the last year to see how much coverage they had. 

  • Homeowners who reviewed their policy’s coverage limits in the last year (44%) were more likely than those who didn’t to:

    • Increase their home’s coverage limits

    • Take action to lower their insurance premiums

    • Have at least one coverage feature in their policy that accounts for high rebuild costs

    • Be “very sure” their house is fully insured

  • Just 9% of homeowners have increased their home’s coverage limit in the last year to account for rising construction costs and inflation.

  • Only 33% of homeowners are “very sure” their home’s coverage limit is high enough to cover their home’s entire rebuild cost.  

  • 83% of homeowners either don’t have or aren’t sure if they have inflation guard coverage — a crucial coverage feature that automatically increases your home’s coverage limit each year to keep pace with inflation.

  • More than two in three homeowners (68%) may not have guaranteed replacement cost coverage, and 80% of homeowners may be without extended replacement cost coverage — two important coverage add-ons that buffer the impacts of demand surge and higher rebuild costs after a disaster.

86% of homeowners haven’t increased their home's coverage limit or added key coverages to their policy in the last year

The dwelling coverage limit on a homeowners insurance policy should be based on the home’s replacement value, or how much it would cost to rebuild based on the current price of building materials and labor. During periods of extreme inflation, it’s more important than ever for homeowners to check and update their dwelling limit at least once per year to ensure their coverage is keeping pace with rising replacement costs. Construction costs on single-family homes were up 16.8% in 2022 alone, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. [2]

Yet in the last year, just a combined 14% of homeowners raised their dwelling coverage limit (9%) or added key coverages to their policy (7%) to offset soaring inflation and high rebuild costs after a natural disaster.

While it’s possible that many homeowners already had adequate protection, just 44% said they had reviewed their insurance policy during that same period to see how much coverage they had. Of those homeowners, 22% increased their home's coverage limits or added to their policy, compared to just 8% of those who didn’t review their policy.

Many homeowners took action to lower their insurance costs in 2022 — particularly those who reviewed their policy in the last 12 months. These homeowners were more than twice as likely to get rid of coverage features they no longer felt they needed (7% vs. 3%) or increase their home insurance policy deductible (5% vs. 2%) as those who didn’t review their policy. And they were also more likely to bundle their home and auto policies (14% vs. 10%).  

Rate-saving actions were the most common among younger homeowners (age 18 to 34), who were nearly twice as likely as other age groups to switch insurers for cheaper rates (31%), and around four times more likely to decrease their coverage limits or eliminate extra coverage features to lower their insurance bill.

1 in 3 homeowners are “very sure” they have enough home insurance to pay for a rebuild

Roughly 75% of homeowners said they’re at least “somewhat sure” their policy’s dwelling coverage limits were high enough to cover the cost to rebuild their home if it were destroyed. However, just 33% are “very sure” this was the case. 

This aligns with what we've already seen in past surveys: A majority of homeowners aren't aware of how much home insurance coverage they need. 

In addition to being more proactive about their insurance, homeowners who reviewed their policy since last year are also more likely to be “very sure” their house is fully insured (45%) compared to those who didn’t (24%), and less likely to be unsure about their home insurance (16% vs. 29%).

47% of homeowners may be without crucial coverages to protect against rising rebuild costs

To help lessen the impact of increased building costs and inflation, many insurers offer inflation guard coverage that automatically adjusts a policy’s coverage limits each year at renewal. 

However, just 17% of homeowners are certain their policy includes this coverage, and a similarly low number (17%) have building ordinance protection to compensate for higher rebuild costs to get a home up to code.

As many as 68% of homeowners may be without guaranteed replacement cost coverage (including 33% who were unsure), and 80% may not have extended replacement cost coverage (also including the 33% who were unsure) — two vital coverages that automatically increase your policy limits to account for the rising cost of construction materials and labor after a natural disaster.

And 47% of all homeowners either have none of these coverages (14%) or aren’t sure if they have these coverages (33%), which means nearly half of insured homes may not be equipped to deal with unexpectedly high rebuild costs after a disaster. 

Two in three (68%) homeowners who reviewed their policy in the last year have at least one of these coverages, 12% have none, and 20% aren’t sure. By comparison, fewer than half (42%) of homeowners who did not review their home insurance have at least one of these coverages, 15% have none, and 44% aren’t sure. 

Amid rising inflation, most homeowners prioritize the best deal, ability to bundle policies when shopping for home insurance

While you may think of foiled home renovation plans or halted construction projects when considering housing-related price inflation, perhaps the most widely felt impact was on the cost of homeowners insurance. Home insurance premiums rose 12.1% on average from May 2021 to May 2022, with a startling 90% of homeowners seeing an increase at renewal, according to our Home Insurance Pricing Report

It may come as no surprise then that when asked what they found most important in a company when shopping for home insurance, more homeowners chose getting the best possible deal (33%) over any other factor. 

You can often find the best deal when you purchase two or more types of insurance policies (like auto and home) through the same company thanks to special bundling discounts. This may explain why the second largest number of homeowners (18%) considered “a place where I can purchase other types of insurance” to be most important when shopping for a policy.

Methodology

Policygenius commissioned YouGov to poll 2,542 American adults (aged 18+), 1,264 of whom confirmed owning a home with a homeowners insurance policy. The survey was carried out online from Jan. 19 through Jan. 23, 2023. The results have been weighted to represent all U.S. adults. The margin of error was between +/-1.4% and +/-4.2% depending on the question. Percentages were rounded to the nearest whole number, so some totals may not add up to 100.

About Policygenius

Policygenius is the online insurance marketplace combining cutting-edge technology with the expertise of real licensed agents to help people get the coverage they need to protect their family, property, and finances with confidence. Since 2014 we’ve helped over 30 million people shop for insurance and placed more than $150 billion in coverage from our headquarters in New York City and Durham, North Carolina.

For reporters

To request more information about the data, or to speak with one of our experts, contact press@policygenius.com.

References

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Policygenius uses external sources, including government data, industry studies, and reputable news organizations to supplement proprietary marketplace data and internal expertise. Learn more about how we use and vet external sources as part of oureditorial standards.

  1. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

    (Retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis). "

    Producer Price Index by Commodity: Special Indexes: Construction Materials

    ." Accessed February 17, 2023.

  2. U.S. Census Bureau

    . "

    Constant Quality Price Index of New Single‐Family Houses Under Construction

    ." Accessed February 17, 2023.

Corrections

No corrections since publication.

Author

Pat Howard is a licensed insurance expert and managing editor at Policygenius. Pat has written extensively about the home insurance industry and his insights as a subject matter expert have appeared in several top tier publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Reuters. Pat has a bachelor's degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

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