Kevin Mercadante is professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry. He and his wife are "empty nesters" living in New Hampshire.
Protecting your home and family is one of the most important things that you need to do as a homeowner. Making sure that all of your valuable belongings and sentimental items are covered.
This article will cover the best homeowners insurance companies, along with the types of coverage you should consider.
Lemonade provides the best-loved homeowners insurance in America. 100% digital. No paperwork, zero hassle. They are my #1 recommended company for homeowners insurance.
Policygenius is an insurance marketplace, which means we'll help you compare free quotes from top insurers. They are one of the leading platforms when shopping for the best home insurance rates.
Some of the links in this post are from our sponsors. We provide you with accurate, reliable information. Read our Advertising Disclosure.
If you’ve been a homeowner before you’ve probably noticed that homeowner’s insurance premiums have been on the rise.
And if you’re a new homeowner, you may be facing some serious sticker shock when you see your first homeowner’s insurance premium.
There are various reasons why premium rates have been increasing, including the rising prevalence of natural disasters, like hurricanes, flooding, tornadoes, mudslides, sinkholes and wildfires.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to identify the best homeowner’s insurance companies and comparison sites.
They’ll help to give you the best possibility of getting a policy that will provide the most comprehensive coverage at the lowest possible premium.
We’ve created this list of the best homeowner’s insurance companies and comparison sites to help you in your search.
Our Top Picks for Best Homeowners Insurance
- Lemonade - Best Overall
- Policygenius - Best Marketplace
- Kin Insurance - Best for Catastropic Events
- Liberty Mutual - Best Discounts
- Allstate - Best Policy Options
- Hippo - Best for All-inclusive Coverage
Comparison of Home Insurance Companies
Lemonade offers renters and home insurance powered by tech and driven by social good.
Policygenius is an insurance marketplace, which means we'll help you compare free quotes from top insurers.
Our Partner
Kin Insurance offers easy, affordable homeowners insurance designed for your needs.
Our Partner
With Liberty Mutual, you can customize coverages to ensure you get the best homeowners insurance for your home and needs at an affordable price.
Our Partner
With Liberty Mutual, you can customize coverages to ensure you get the best homeowners insurance for your home and needs at an affordable price.
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Simpler, smarter home and condo insurance for up to 25% less. Hippo has modernized home insurance.
If you scan through our list of companies and sites, you’ll find our list is overweight with “fintech” companies.
These are businesses that rely primarily on information databases to determine risk assessment and premium levels, rather than on traditional investigative measures used by most insurance companies.
But the insurance industry is in rapid transition, moving from traditional methods of customer and property evaluation, to relying increasingly on available databases.
This is resulting in insurance policies that are both quicker to obtain and often lower in premium.
While the core of traditional insurance providers remains strong, the transition toward online fintech based insurance companies and comparison sites is clearly the wave of the future.
Our list reflects that shift.
6 Best Homeowners Insurance Companies
The six companies and comparison sites presented below are not listed in numerical order, and that’s hardly an accident.
We recognize that there is no one best homeowner’s insurance company or comparison site for all consumers.
Instead, we’ve included the companies we believe are best for certain niches we believe to be important to the largest number of consumers.
Details of what each company or comparison site offers are also included under each.
Our selection process for the best homeowner’s insurance companies and comparison sites isn’t at all random.
We’ve chosen the companies and sites based on the following criteria:
BEST FOR CATEGORY
Most insurance companies have one or two areas where they are particularly strong. This was a major factor in determining which companies to include on our list. Put another way, there is no one best homeowner’s insurance company for all homeowners! It’s more important to find the one that will work best for you.
BUNDLING
Probably the biggest single discount offer comes with bundling homeowner’s insurance with an auto insurance policy.
BASIC POLICY REVISIONS
This is the list of standard provisions provided in a typical policy offered by a company.
OPTIONAL POLICY REVISIONS
This is the number of optional provisions that will enable you to customize your policy for special needs and circumstances.
AVAILABLE DISCOUNTS
The more discounts a company offers, the lower its premium is likely to be. You may even find a single discount or combination of discounts will get you a lower premium with one company than it will with another that’s better known for low prices.
1. Lemonade - Best Overall
Lemonade is a peer-to-peer (P2P) insurance platform, specializing entirely in homeowner’s and renter’s insurance.
They advertise homeowner’s insurance starting at $25 per month, which isn’t the cheapest coverage available, but they make up for it in other areas.
By using the P2P business model, Lemonade operates as an all online platform, and in real time. Claims are able to be paid quickly, often in as little as a few seconds.
You’ll complete a claim report on the app, and enter your bank wire information.
The company’s goal is to pay claims almost immediately. They even advertise claims being paid out in three minutes.
Lemonade is only available in 26 states, but they plan to expand to 22 more in the near future.
Another potential issue is that the company does not indicate offering any discounts.
Auto Insurance Offered (for Bundling)?: No auto insurance offered.
Basic Policy Provisions: Personal liability, dwelling, personal property inside your home and “anywhere in the world”, theft, reimbursement for living expenses, water damage from internal sources
Available Discounts: None indicated.
2. Policygenius - Best Marketplace
Policygenius is an insurance comparison site, also known as an online insurance marketplace.
They offer the opportunity for you to get policy quotes from multiple insurance companies from a single online application.
In addition to homeowner’s insurance, you can also get renter’s, life, auto, disability, pet, health and other types of life insurance. Policygenius is a virtual one-stop shop for all your insurance needs.
And because you’ll get several quotes on the same policy, you’ll have an excellent chance of getting the best policy at the lowest premium.
It’s likely some of the other companies on this list also participate on the Policygenius website.
Since many different companies offer homeowner’s insurance through the platform, the specific terms of each policy will vary.
That includes basic policy provisions, optional provisions, available discounts, and the potential to get a big discount for bundling homeowner’s and auto insurance policies.
Auto Insurance Offered (for Bundling)?: Varies by insurance company chosen.
Basic Policy Provisions: Varies by insurance company chosen.
Optional Policy Provisions: Varies by insurance company chosen.
Available Discounts: Varies by insurance company chosen.
3. Kin Insurance - Best for Catastropic Events
Kin is another fintech insurance provider, operating in much the same way as Lemonade and Hippo.
You can apply online, and get home insurance in less than 15 minutes.
It also offers only homeowners insurance, but extends affordable coverage to homeowners in catastrophe prone states like Florida and California. Kin does not offer other types of coverage, particularly auto insurance.
Coverage is currently available only in a limited number of states. The company also doesn’t disclose the availability of any discounts.
Auto Insurance Offered (for Bundling)?: No auto insurance offered.
Basic Policy Provisions: Personal liability, property structures including external structures, personal property, loss of use, and visitor medical expenses.
Optional Policy Provisions: Manufactured homes, flood, hurricane, landlord, umbrella, and second homes.
Available Discounts: None indicated.
4. Liberty Mutual - Best Discounts
Liberty Mutual is one of the leading providers of both homeowners and auto insurance in the country. In fact, they advertise bundling the two policies together can save you as much as $842 per year.
Liberty Mutual is a full-service insurance company and has a long list of discounts to help lower the cost of your homeowner’s insurance policy.
Auto Insurance Offered (for Bundling)?: Yes
Basic Policy Provisions: Dwelling, personal liability, personal possessions, and additional living expenses.
Optional Policy Provisions: Extra coverage for valuables, water backup and sump pump overflow, and inflation protection.
Available Discounts: Protective devices, newly purchased home, bundling home and auto (up to $842), claims free five years or more, early shopper, newly renovated home, new roof, preferred payment discount, paperless policy.
5. Allstate - Best Policy Options
Allstate is one of the best-known insurance companies in the country, providing virtually every type of insurance there is.
They’re particularly strong in the area of auto insurance, which opens the possibility of a bundling discount with your homeowners insurance policy.
And of course, they offer an opportunity for you to have virtually all your insurance policies handled through the same company.
As you might expect, a company the size of Allstate offers one of the widest selections of optional coverages.
You can cover a mobile home, a home sharing situation, business property, electronic data recovery, and perhaps the most interesting, green improvement reimbursement.
That will cover the additional cost of replacing damaged or destroyed components with more energy efficient items. They’re also incredibly strong in the area of discounts, going way beyond the usual bundling with an auto policy.
They offer special discounts for home protective devices, switching to Allstate, recent homebuyers, retirees, and much more.
Auto Insurance Offered (for Bundling)?: Yes
Basic Policy Provisions: Dwelling, personal liability, personal property, and guest medical.
Optional Policy Provisions: Flood, manufactured and mobile homes, personal umbrella, home sharing, identity theft restoration, water backup, business property, electronic data recovery, musical instruments, sports equipment, and green improvement reimbursement as described above.
Available Discounts: Bundling with auto insurance, protective devices, early signing (up to 10%), welcome and loyalty (10% for switching the Allstate, and 10% every year thereafter) new or recent homebuyer, 55 and retired, home safety equipment.
6. Hippo Insurance - Best for All-Inclusive Coverage
Hippo works much the same as Lemonade in that it’s an all online platform. The application process is fast, and premiums are among the lowest in the industry in all markets where Hippo is available.
The big advantage with Hippo is all-inclusive coverage. Their standard policies include provisions normally considered as additional coverage with other companies.
This includes a higher amount of coverage for home office and computer equipment, enhance protection for equipment breakdown, and personal liability coverage extending to house cleaners and house sitters.
You should be aware however that Hippo only provides homeowner’s insurance, and is only active in only 22 states. In addition, the company doesn’t offer all policy provisions or options in all states.
Auto Insurance Offered (for Bundling)?: No auto insurance offered.
Basic Policy Provisions: Personal liability, dwelling, personal property, home office and computer coverage (up to $10,000), equipment breakdown (up to $100,000), service line coverage, water backup.
Personal liability extends to house cleaners and house sitters.
Optional Policy Provisions: Flood, wind and earthquake
Available Discounts: Storm shutters, smart home, fire extinguishers, early bird sign up, HOA membership, and mortgage free home.
Next Steps...
Our hope in providing this guide is that – in addition to identifying the best homeowner’s insurance and comparison sites – you’ll also be more aware of the various policy provisions and discounts that are available with this type of insurance.
Unfortunately, insurance of all types has always been more complicated than the average consumer understands.
While there’s always a temptation to shop based primarily on price, it’s equally important to consider the quality and extent of the coverage.
This is even more critical given the increase in natural disasters that have occurred in recent years.
Hurricanes, earthquakes, tornadoes, wildfires, sinkholes, and other hazards are increasingly happening in areas where they haven’t in the past.
This may have something to do with the overall increase in the population, or even the concentration of residents living in highly desirable but environmentally unstable areas, particularly along the coastlines.
That being the case, it’s more important than ever to make sure you have homeowner’s insurance that will cover the predictable hazards likely to occur where you live.
It may be better to pay a little bit extra to get the additional coverage than to buy a bare-bones policy – at a very low premium – that will leave you poorly covered in the event of a disaster.
Balancing coverage with cost is always been the name of the game with insurance.
That goes for homeowner’s insurance as well, and we hope this guide will help you with the process.
Policygenius
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Homeowners Insurance FAQ's
The national average homeowner’s insurance premium is $2,305 per year, based on a $300,000 dwelling with a $1,000 deductible and $300,000 in personal liability coverage.
But that rate is meaningless, because homeowner’s insurance premiums vary significantly from one state to another. They range from a low of $499 per year in Hawaii to a high of $4,445 in Oklahoma, based on the same coverage amount.
Factors that affect homeowner’s insurance premiums include the following:
- Your geographic location. As noted above, there’s a wide variation in premiums between states. That’s because some states are more subject to natural disasters, like tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, earthquakes and sinkholes.
- The value of your home.
- The amount of coverage you have for non-structural coverage, such as personal possessions and personal liability.
- Your personal claim history.
- Your credit history.
- The construction of your home. That includes the age, building materials, safety equipment and other factors.
- Pets you own. Some dog breeds are considered dangerous and will result in higher premiums.
- Any discounts that might apply to your policy.
- Specialized coverages, such as business use of your home or running a childcare facility from home.
Considering all the above factors, average premium levels aren’t much help.
You won’t know exactly what you’re premium will be until you get a quote after providing all the required details.
Exactly what a homeowner’s insurance policy will cover will depend on the stipulations that it includes.
The basic components in a typical policy include the following:
- Dwelling – that’s the cost to replace it should it be partially or totally destroyed.
- Other structures on the property – including detached garage, a shed, fences, and sometimes even landscaping.
- Personal property – that’s basically any property contained inside your home.
- Loss of use – most homeowner’s policies will provide reimbursement for alternative living arrangements if you lose use of your home.
- Personal liability – this is the portion of your policy that will provide coverage if someone is injured on your property, or by your pet. It will cover medical costs incurred, as well as damages claimed in a lawsuit up to the limit of the policy.
Within the scope of those provisions, you’ll be covered against fire, theft, vandalism, storms, hail, lightning, snow and ice storms, explosions, falling objects, water damage from internal sources (like burst water pipes or a malfunctioning hot water heater), electrical damage, lightning, and in some cases, structural damage resulting from shifting in the ground.
Those are the basic components of a standard homeowner’s insurance policy.
But you can add options for other contingencies, such as identity theft, high dollar value items (fine art, jewelry, antiques, etc.), home business operations, home sharing arrangements and umbrella coverage for higher amounts of personal liability.
Of course, the addition of any of these provisions will increase your premium.
Since homeowner’s insurance policies have several major components, this is a multipart question.
Let’s look at each individually:
Dwelling
You should have sufficient coverage to rebuild your home. If your home is worth $400,000, of which $300,000 is the structure and $100,000 is the land value, your policy should cover the dwelling for at least $300,000.
In addition, an inflation provision should be built into your policy to cover rising construction costs.
Personal Property
Most policies will have a standard percentage for personal property based on your dwelling coverage. For example, if your dwelling is insured for $300,000, a 50% provision for personal property will cover you for up to $150,000.
You should do at least a general estimate of the value of your personal property to make sure the amount of coverage offered will be sufficient to cover your personal property.
However, there’s usually a limit as to how much insurance will pay for any single item, and you will need additional coverage for those possessions.
This is frequently referred to as “scheduled property”, which means it’s listed as a separate line item.
Replacement Cost Value (RCV) vs. Actual Cash Value (ACV)
Most insurance companies will offer you either option in regard to your personal property. RCV will cover the retail cost of replacement. For this reason, this provision will be more expensive.
ACV covers depreciated value. If your dining room set cost $10,000 brand-new, but is now five years old, the insurance company may assign a value of $2,000 to it.
That’s the maximum reimbursement you’ll get. As you might expect, ACV will save you money on premiums, but leave you short of funds after a disaster. RCV is definitely the way to go.
Loss of Use
It’s hard to estimate this potential cost since there are so many variables. It will depend on the length of time your home may be unavailable. That can be anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more.
Most companies handle this by imposing a percentage of the dwelling policy, such as 20%. If your dwelling coverage is $300,000, a 20% provision for loss of use will provide up to $60,000 in coverage.
Personal Liability
Most companies offer this in increments, which may be multiples of $100,000. But how much coverage you’ll need isn’t correlated with the value of your home.
Instead, it should be more closely tied to your net worth. If you have substantial financial assets, you should have personal liability coverage to match whatever that figure is.
For example, if your net worth is $500,000, that should be the amount of your personal liability coverage.
If you are a very high net worth individual, particularly if your net worth is into the millions, you’re strongly advised to add an umbrella policy to your homeowner’s insurance.
That will provide you a higher level of personal liability protection than a standard homeowner’s policy will normally offer.
Kevin Mercadante is professional personal finance blogger, and the owner of his own personal finance blog, OutOfYourRut.com. He has backgrounds in both accounting and the mortgage industry. He and his wife are "empty nesters" living in New Hampshire.
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