Home Insurance Premiums Jump 46% Since 2021, Emerging as Top Midterm Issue

3 articles · Updated · The New York Times · Oct 13

Three weeks before the midterms, home insurance and property taxes have joined fuel and groceries as leading voter concerns, reshaping races in states including Florida, North Carolina and Kansas.
Premiums have climbed 46% since 2021—nearly triple inflation—as hurricanes, fires and tornadoes worsened by climate change, along with higher construction costs, drive up the cost of covering homes.
Florida candidates for governor are battling over the nation’s highest home insurance rates, while Kansas’s insurance commissioner race has turned unusually competitive as hail and wind losses push costs into the top five nationally.
North Carolina voters are also weighing a constitutional amendment to cap property taxes, underscoring how housing-related costs are broadening the affordability fight and scrambling the map in both Republican and Democratic strongholds.
A recent survey found 58% of Americans said rising insurance costs would make them more likely to vote, giving the issue national weight beyond the hardest-hit states.