Millions of U.S. homeowners are uninsured as insurance costs soar

The protection gap in U.S. housing has widened into an affordability crisis: 6.1 million homes, or 7.4% of homeowners, lacked homeowners insurance, leaving about $1.6 trillion in property value uninsured. As premiums climbed, more families responded by raising deductibles, trimming coverage, or going without insurance altogether.

The burden has not fallen evenly. A Consumer Federation of America report found uninsured rates of 11% among Black homeowners, 14% among Hispanic homeowners, and 22% among Native American homeowners, though data for Native American households were limited. Rural homeowners were also more likely to be uninsured, as were owners in places such as Houston and Miami, where climate exposure and repeated losses have made coverage harder to keep.

Federal regulators have already documented how fast the market is deteriorating. The Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office said homeowners insurance became more costly and harder to procure for millions of Americans, using data from more than 330 insurers and over 246 million policies from 2018 through 2022. Over that period, average premiums rose 8.7% faster than inflation. In the highest climate-risk ZIP codes, homeowners paid $2,321 on average, 82% more than those in the lowest-risk areas. Nonrenewal rates in the riskiest ZIP codes were about 80% higher as well.

The trend is showing up in broader price data too. Research summarized by the National Bureau of Economic Research found average home insurance costs rose from $1,902 in 2020 to $2,530 in 2023. That increase tracked with a doubling of U.S. property and casualty reinsurance costs between 2018 and 2023, a sign that insurers are paying far more to protect themselves against losses before those costs reach consumers.

The pressure kept building in 2025. Another Consumer Federation of America report said homeowners insurance premiums rose 24% from 2021 to 2024, or about $648 on average, pushing the typical annual premium to $3,303 by 2024. For millions of homeowners, the math is becoming brutal: pay more for less coverage, or take the risk of being underinsured when disaster strikes.