How Location Affects Home Insurance Rates
by Sue Palmer
You should know which factors affect your home insurance rates. The knowledge can help you manage your rates, among other things. For example, location is one of the things that affect home insurance rates. Here are some location-dependent factors that affect home insurance.
Natural Disasters
Home insurance typically covers some disasters and excludes others. The type of policy you have determines which disasters your coverage applies to. For example, some basic policies do not cover damage from falling objects or snow weight. However, most policies cover disasters like lightning, wildfires, and damage to frozen plumbing systems.
Different areas experience different rates of disasters. A high rate of disasters means higher risks to insurance companies. Thus, your home insurance rates will climb
Construction Costs
Home insurance primarily protects homeowners from losses related to structural damage. Your home insurance policy should help you rebuild your home in case of a disaster. Labour and material costs determine the overall cost of construction. Both of these factors of construction are location-dependent.
For example, the average range of constructing an average house in Georgia is $102,500-$393,000. The cost rises to $152,600-$490,000 for Californians. The costs don't just vary by state — even different cities within the same state have different construction costs. Your home insurance company must charge you rates commensurate with the construction costs in your area.
Criminal Statistics
Your home insurance will also compensate you for losses related to theft. Again, crime statistic varies by area. Even within the same city or suburb, some locations experience more theft than others do. Expect to pay high premiums if your locale witnesses high theft cases every year. After all, you will want your insurance carrier to replace your big screen TV if you someone steals it.
Emergency Services
A speedy emergency intervention can help prevent or mitigate many residential losses. For example, a fast police response can interrupt a burglar and prevent theft. A fast response by the fire department can limit fire damage. In such cases, the insurance payout will be less than it would have been without the speedy response.
Some areas have better emergency services and responses than others. The areas with good emergency services tend to enjoy good home insurance rates. For example, you may enjoy reasonable rates if you live near a fire station and your local police have a speedy response time.
Thus, don't expect your home insurance rates to remain the same when you move. Start afresh and shop for quotes from different providers such as ALTRE Insurance Agency Inc to get the best rates possible.
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About Me
Purchasing insurance — the right insurance — is one of the smartest things you will ever do. While there are definitely differences between homeowners, car, life, and health insurance policies, they all serve the same purpose when it comes down to it. Insurance protects you against financial ruin should a tragedy happen in your life. In the case of homeowners insurance, that tragedy could be a fire or a flood. In the case of life insurance, that tragedy would be your death. The more you learn about insurance, the better the decisions you'll make when purchasing it. So dive into the articles here, and start reading.
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