What is a reasonable cost for home insurance? (car insurance, crime rates)

[windsorslp]

I have to do some more calling around but do you think that 1200$ a year on a $375,000 home built in 1998 with a 1000$ deductible in Fulton county is a good deal? Any advice which companies offer the best rates. I got this quote from the place that insures our cars.

[BobKovacs]

Sounds about right. We pay around $900 for a $300k house built in 2005. You may be able to do a little better, but if you're getting multi-policy discounts on your car insurance, losing those will offset any savings.

[ATLTJL]

Sounds a bit high to me, but I don't know if the math is exponential or not.

For example, my house is worth about half of yours, but my insurance cost is only about a third.

[arjay57]

Man, I think I'm getting hammered on my policy. It's way out of line with what y'all are describing.

[lorilove]

Not all policies are the same. To begin with, your home insurance does not cover the land. So you can't simply compare the market value of your home - you must deduct the value of the land.

Also, insurance should be at replacement cost not at market value. With the current depressed prices, my house will take considerably more to replace than it is currently value.

I assume that your insurance included a certain amount of assets in the home. Without knowing the value that you declared compared to someone else, just comparing insurance cost in relation to market value does not tell a complete story.

[ATLTJL]

I don't know the technical term for it, but my insurance policy covers the house for what it would cost to rebuild, I guess the logic being if it burns down they rebuild it for you and don't just total it out and write you a check like they do for cars.

I think, at least with my company, $100,000 is a standard amount to insure for possessions, even though most people (and certainly myself included) don't have anywhere near that.

I'm sure they take crime rates, fire department response times, and all kinds of other things into consideration too, so it's probably largely dependent on where exactly you are located.

The best advice is to just get a few quotes. You'll know pretty soon if your quote is pretty good or way out of line.

[arjay57]

Good advice, Lori and TJL.

You are both so right about the need to have replacement value coverage. Some friends of ours had a wonderful old Neel Reid home which they had had lovingly restored. It was full of architectural detail and after a fire they discovered that they only had a fixed limit policy. What a catastrophe!

I do need to get some quotes. Homeowners is one of those things I just renew every year without really pricing it out. A big mistake!

[lorilove]

I think, at least with my company, $100,000 is a standard amount to insure for possessions, even though most people (and certainly myself included) don't have anywhere near that.

If you added up the replacement cost of every item in your house including, jewelry, electronics, every piece of clothing, all your kitchen items and lawn tools etc. Don't leave a stone unturned because it is all covered - the average home would easily come to $100,000.

The general recommendation is that you should get a video camera and carefully take pictures of every room, closet and drawer.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by lorilove

The general recommendation is that you should get a video camera and carefully take pictures of every room, closet and drawer.

And don't store the DVD at home!

[windsorslp]

Well the guy told me they went by a standard of 200,000 for replacement of contents. When i said whoaaa I don't have THAT much stuff, can you lower that a bit? he said "that is the standard and no I couldn't lower that". The replacement value he quoted my was 360,000$ I think. It is in a very good neighborhood. I will definitely call around tho. Just thought maybe I'd put it to the real people out there! Thanks everyone, that is all good advice.