Voters worry about home insurance cost

Three quarters of Midwestern homeowners are concerned about rising home insurance premiums and 86% of homeowners surveyed in a poll released Thursday by Climate Power and the Insurance Fairness Project say elected officials should do more to reduce the cost.

The poll surveyed Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas homeowners and found they largely supported policy solutions to hold utilities, polluters and insurance companies accountable for rising insurance premiums.

Mia Logan, a senior advisor for Climate Power, said the dream of owning a home is "slipping further out of reach" as families have to make financial tradeoffs to afford their home insurance premiums. "While Americans are already stretched thin by rising costs on everything from groceries to gas to health care, climate change is now adding another burden: skyrocketing home insurance premiums," Logan said in a news release. "People are feeling the squeeze and want their elected officials to step up and actually do something about it."

Average home insurance premiums rose 28% in Iowa in 2025, according to a March report from Insurify that predicted premiums will rise an average of 4% for a single-family home in 2026.

More than half, 51%, of those surveyed said they worried insurance costs would impact their abilities to keep, sell or make upgrades to their homes. Respondents to the poll, which was conducted by SurveyUSA, said inflation and insurance companies were the top drivers of the rising cost, but severe weather patterns across the Midwest have also contributed to the mounting cost of home insurance premiums.

Twenty-nine percent of those surveyed across the three states have been personally impacted by severe weather in the past three years and 74% are concerned that damaging severe weather events will become more frequent in their states over the next five years.

The poll also surveyed homeowners in North Carolina and Arizona, who were less concerned with severe weather impacts than Midwestern respondents, who were grouped into a single report. Between 60%-67% of responding Midwestern homeowners, the majority of whom were registered voters, said they felt federal elected officials, state legislators, governors and state insurance commissioners were doing "too little" to address insurance costs.

The poll showed broad support among the Midwestern respondents for several policy recommendations. More than 80% agreed insurers should "clearly disclose" the main factors determining a homeowner's eligibility and premium costs, 79% favored a requirement that insurance companies work with state and local officials to reduce disaster risks and 77% said they should provide funding to help homeowners make their homes more resistant to disasters.

The surveyed homeowners — 81% — also agreed that states should be allowed to recover money from polluting companies and use the funds to support infrastructure upgrades and disaster response in communities. More than 60% of respondents favored policies that would allow those impacted by climate disasters to recover losses from polluters like oil, gas and coal companies.

Thirty-four percent of respondents said insurance companies should bear the greatest responsibility for rising insurance costs caused by extreme weather events. Just over 10% said policyholders should carry the greatest responsibility.