Alston Balkcom

Move to the Wrong Region and Spend More for Insurance Premiums



Posted: Friday, November 13, 2009

by Alston Balkcom
1800insuranceCT.com

Select your next home wisely. The rates for various types of insurance protection is impacted by the neighborhood you live in.

The region you live in, the muncipality, even the zip code could be impactful. It might help or hurt you when it comes to the cost for various lines of insurance. Factors such as population density, theft statistics and the amount of snowfall may affect the number of claims your insurance provider expects to pay. Because of that these factors could make a significant difference in the amount you pay for your insurance plans.

The types of coverage most affected by your the location of your house include:

Generally there will be more car accidents in towns where there are more cars and trucks and people per square mile. More car, means more automobiles, to hit you and more autos and trucks, that can crash into you. What this means is the car and truck insurer has to write more checks for claims and the rest of us pay more for our policies. The crime rate, including the rate of vandalism and auto and truck thefts per capita also has an impact. Severe weather, means more car and truck accidents and higher insurance premiums as well.

Real estate insurance

Real estate coverage is also affected by the weather. People who live in areas that are in hurricane zones are really hurt by this. Other weather events have an impact on insurance prices as well. Snow, wind and high temperatures cause more claims and also higher costs for coverage.

The cost of construction in a given zip code is yet another factor that makes prices for insurance go upward or downward. If building materials have higher prices or the cost of labor is higher in your area verses the one next door, your rates may be much higher.

Apartment insurance

The crime rate can make a big difference in what we pay to cover our rented homes. Theft is one of the major things that an apartment renters insurance policy protects us against and therefore if there are more break-ins in your city your apartment renters insurance company may pass those higher prices on to you and other policy holders.

Medical insurance

The location of your house has less to do with the frequency of hospital or doctor visits than it has to do with the cost of that treatment. The cost to set a leg in a small hamlet in Oregon will be much lower than the cost to set the same broken bone in Los Angeles, California. When physicians and hospitals cost more, insurance carriers charge more and we pay more to the carriers. We can expect that insurance carriers will charge those who live in the pricier area a much higher rate because of this.

What to Do?

Of course no one expects you to move solely based on the size of your insurance premiums. However, when you're looking for a new place to house, you should take this into account along with the other issues you and your spouse would generally consider about when selecting your next house.

Tell your story to an agent who works with people in an neighborhood that you are considering moving to and ask him or her to estimate costs for different insurance plans. The insurance lines ones that are most affected by geography are vehicle, homeowners, renters and health care insurance.

Usually, a costlier home will have lower rates for insurance. This could mean that you can afford the overall costs of a live in a better town.

Alston J. Balkcom has been in insurance agent for over 2 decades. He can help you find home and renters insurance policies on his site
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