Report says insurance is weighing down the housing market

A new report from the Insurance Fairness Project finds that the home insurance crisis has moved from the margins to the core of the U.S. housing market, with unaffordable and unavailable coverage now disrupting home sales, slowing new construction, and pushing homeownership further out of reach for American families.

The report, No Policy, No Sale: How Insurers Are Weighing Down the U.S. Housing Market documents how rapidly rising premiums and shrinking insurance availability are colliding with an already fragile housing market. Severe climate disasters are increasing financial risks, which insurers are passing on to homeowners. Deals that once sailed through underwriting are now collapsing in the final days before closing, sellers are being forced to pull listings, and real estate agents are leaving the industry altogether.

“Insurance is supposed to be the safety net that makes homeownership possible. Instead, it's becoming the reason deals fall apart and buying a home becomes inaccessible,” said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “Buyers are doing everything right and still losing their homes because no carrier will write a policy.”

Key Findings:

• • Home insurance premiums have jumped 21% nationwide over the last three years, with another 8% increase projected in 2026.
  • The average premium for a single-family home is now nearly $2,370 a year, up roughly 70% over the past five years. On average, insurance now makes up 9.6% of monthly mortgage payment, the highest share on record.
  • Nearly half of homebuyers and sellers (47%) reported a home purchase or sale being disrupted due to insurance affordability challenges, with national contract fallout rates reaching 7.1% in late 2025 and metros like Atlanta, Las Vegas, San Antonio, and the Inland Empire seeing rates reach 9-10%.

• In California, roughly one in seven home sales fell apart in 2024 because buyers could not secure insurance, pushing more homeowners onto the state's costly insurer of last resort.

• Homeowners in nearly one-third  of all states now pay more for insurance than property taxes, and insurers apply climate-risk pricing so unevenly that lower-credit homeowners in low-risk areas often pay more than high-credit homeowners in high-risk ones.

• Rising and unpredictable insurance costs are also constraining the housing supply, as developers struggle to secure adequate coverage for new construction and operators delay upgrades that would otherwise prevent housing deterioration.

“Insurers have spent decades warning about climate risk while continuing to post strong profits, hand out executive pay packages, and spend millions every year on national ad campaigns,” Helmstetter continued. “Meanwhile, everyday families are left footing the bill for increased climate risks through higher premiums, non-renewals, and collapsed home sales. This issue has become a core driver of America’s housing affordability crisis, and lawmakers can't keep treating this as a side issue.”

Read the full report, No Policy, No Sale: How Insurers Are Weighing Down the U.S. Housing Market.