Oklahoma ranked highest home insurance cost in the country

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — With all the damage Oklahomans see every year it shouldn't be a surprise, but Oklahoma leads the nation in home insurance rates.

The average homeowner spends nearly $5,500 a year. Unfortunately, the rates don't look like they will be lowering anytime soon.

Home insurance in Oklahoma has jumped almost 38% since 2019. Severe weather is the main cause for the steep increase, but it isn't the only factor.

"There are the tornadoes, there's powerful hail and wind storms," Rob Bhatt, Insurance Analyst with LendingTree LLC said. "Just by the scope of damage they do, they tend to make the cost of insurance expensive."

So far in 2024, Oklahoma has seen 99 tornadoes. The state averages 57 per year.

"They make the insurance companies cost expensive and then the insurance companies pass those costs along to the customers in the form of higher rates," Bhatt said.

Oklahoma leads the nation in homeowner insurance cost mostly due to the large increase in severe storms the state has seen.

"You would have experienced about an average of two $1 billion storms a year over the decade of the 2000's, Bhatt said. "In 2023, there were eight just in one year alone."

The rise in storms also come as the cost of building materials continue to rise, adding to the rates set by insurance companies.

"They're paying for more damage at the same time than they normally would be," Bhatt said. "So, that's just something that's the nature of the of the environment in that area."

Bhatt says in Oklahoma, insurance companies generally lose money on home policies.

"For every $1 they earn in premium, they had to spend $1.19 to pay for home repairs and to rebuild homes," Bhatt said. "So, you know, as a whole, the industry lost money in 2023."

While we can't predict what storms and inflation will look like in the future, Bhatt is optimistic going forward.

"We've seen some progress on inflation in terms of that number cooling down and so that might help ease some of the pressure on the situation," Bhatt said. "We've had some extraordinary years in terms of weather and climate issues and climate disasters in the past few years. So, you know, ideally we would hope that things will settle down a little bit."