When Is the Best Time to Shop for Homeowners' Insurance?
Weather Forecasts and Timing May Now Matter More
Shopping at the Right Time Could Save You Hundreds
Most home owners know that it's important to shop around for the best coverage package for their home. But because seasonal severe weather now carries such high financial risk, shopping for insurance at the right time of year may now make the difference in how much you pay each year.
It's no secret that property and casualty insurers follow what's happening with weather conditions in the U.S. Afterall, insurers know that hundreds of millions -- if not billions -- of dollars in losses along the U.S. coastlines are at risk with every tropical disturbance moving across the Atlantic. The same also applies every winter and spring to the central plains and far western states as the yearly threat of severe convective storms and wildfires comes around again. So, insurance companies must line up ways to cover all these possible losses, either with the help of costly and strict reinsurers or by increasing customer premiums.
As part of our research in a recent study, we tracked changes in the average annual premiums from online insurance quote services for all 50 states. Each quote was posted at different times during the period from April 24, 2025 to September 10, 2025. We not only found that online quoted premiums changed monthly but that changes often corresponded to regional weather forecasts and storm activity.
As a result, pricing data suggests a pattern where homeowner's average insurance premium prices rise and fall in concert with severe weather forecasts and activity. How much prices change typically depends on which regions or states are seeing the greatest risks.
Key Findings:
- Online insurance quote services show that average premium prices can spike seasonally in regions where weather risks are thought to be highest. Policy prices in the most risky regions can triple during the height of the hurricane season threat and then plummet back down at the end.
- Sudden price spikes in high risk states can reverberate across the whole market as insurers try to cover potential losses. Regions with lower risks for bad weather can see their average annual premium prices jump by $500 to over $1,000 in response to sudden price spikes in riskier areas.
- Large price swings appear to rise and fall in concert with severe weather forecasts and activity. This suggests weather predictions and conditions may now exert stronger pressure on home insurance rates than previously felt.
- Consumers should consider the time of year when shopping for the lowest home insurance policy rate. Settling on a new policy by mid-April before hurricane predictions are announced may help find a low annual premium and likewise help with subsequent renewals.
When Severe Weather Changes Insurance Pricing
The West North Central and East South Central regions usually experience the most number of severe storms in later spring and early summer. These storms can include damaging wind gusts, large hail, and tornadoes. According to reinsurer, Swiss RE, at least 70% of the losses from severe convective storms happen in the first part of the year with the peak occurring in June.
Though a single severe storm does a fraction of what a hurricane can do, the real threat they pose for homeowner insurance rates lies in the number of times such storms occur in a single season.
For example, in 2025, the East and West South Central regions each saw the most number of severe storm events in May. Insured losses ranged between $4 and $7 billion. However, June saw 684 tornadoes, 2523 reports of severe hail, and 4697 reports of severe wind --all spread out over multiple regions. The derecho on June 19-22 unleashed 41 tornadoes and caused $875 million in damage from Montana to New York.
As a result, this year's U.S. property losses in the first 6 months from severe convective storms added up to $31 billion.
While severe storms with strong winds and severe hail took longer to slacken in the West North Central region, the severe convection storm season largely peaked in June. So, while onshore severe storm risks were winding down in July, the insurance industry's focus shifted to the Atlantic hurricane season.
When Storm Risks Intersect with Insurance Rates
By using online insurance quote services rates, we can see how financial risk was reflected in insurance premium prices by comparing the dates with severe convective storm and hurricane season activity. Though crude, our results show several correlations where severe weather impacts homeowners' insurance rates.
Significant Correlations
April, 2025
Event: East and West South Central region begin highly active storm season. Hurricane forecasting services predict active season.
Effects on reported average annual premium: National average homeowner's insurance price begins rising from $1,789 to $2,000. Prices in West South Central, West North Central, East South Central, and South Atlantic rise above $2,000 by May 1.
May, 2025
Event: Severe storm activity reaches season peak in East and West South Central regions, and East North Central region. Storm activity increases in South Atlantic, Middle Atlantic, and West North Central regions. NOAA officially predicts active hurricane season.
Effects on reported average annual premium: Insurance prices rise to May peak:
- National Average: $2,257
- West South Central: $4,527
- West North Central: $3,433
- East South Central: $3,178
- South Atlantic: $2,210
May 1 to June 30
Event: Severe convective storm season quickly wanes in East and West South Central regions, and East North Central region. Storm activity begins waning in South Atlantic region. Severe storm activity plateaus in Middle Atlantic, New England, and West North Central regions. Saharan Air Layer (SAL) and other equatorial weather patterns in the mid-Atlantic suppress tropical cyclone formation.
Effects on reported average annual premium: By June 30:
Prices rise:
- Middle Atlantic: $1,915.00 (31%)
- New England: $1,795.00 (21%)
- East North Central: $1,782 (2%)
- Pacific Contiguous: $1,660.00 (18%)
Prices Fall:
- National Average: $1,874 (-17%)
- West South Central: $2,917 (-36%)
- West North Central: $2,424 (-29%)
- East South Central: $2,278 (-28%)
- South Atlantic: $1,688 (-24%)
July
Event: Storm activity steadily wanes in East South Central, Middle Atlantic, and West North Central regions by end of July. Hail storms shift north and west. July 6, Tropical Storm Chantal makes landfall in South Carolina.
Effects on reported average annual premium: Most prices trending up. National Average: $3,706.00 (97.76%)
Prices spike in:
- West North Central: $4,312.00 (77.89%)
- East South Central: $3,825.00 (67.91%)
- West South Central: $5,171.00 (77.27%)
- Mountain: $2,754.00 (59.19%)
August 4 to 5
Event: Tropical Storm Dexter forms, stalls off North Carolina. August 5 - Dexter turns and moves out into the Atlantic. NOAA hurricane season update still calls for an active season.
Effects on reported average annual premium: Prices fall by an average of 11.5%, then rise on August 5. National Average: $2,853.00 (12.10%)
Prices spike in Gulf region:
- South Atlantic: $4,374.00 (88.86%)
- East South Central: $4,545.00 (40.80%)
- West South Central: $8,476.00 (96.43%)
August 6 to September 2
Event: Severe convective storm activity falls below April level. Hurricane Erin briefly menaces North Carolina's Outer Banks. No other storm will approach the U.S. until late September.
Effects on reported average annual premium: Prices fall. National Average: $2,332.00 (-32.07%)
Greatest relief seen in:
- Middle Atlantic: $1,069.00 (-50.16%)
- South Atlantic: $1,830.00 (-58.16%)
- West South Central: $3,338.00 (-60.62%)
September 3 to 10
Event: A series of tropical disturbances appear and fizzle, indicating the approaching peak of the Atlantic hurricane season.
Effects on reported average annual premium: Prices rise. National Average: $2,332.00 (20.33%)
Notable increases:
- Middle Atlantic: $1,490.00 (39.38%)
- East North Central: $2,023.00 (39.38%)
- West North Central: $3,301.00 (41.31%)
- West South Central: $4,058.00 (21.57%)
While not all states felt direct effects of hurricane season costs, the corresponding rises and declines suggest that insurers (and re-insurers) were spreading the risk of hurricane losses among all their customers, no matter where they lived.
The Five Most Expensive States
In early August when fears ran high over Tropical Storm Dexter and expectations grew that hurricane season would actually start in earnest, Florida saw the highest price surge with average annual premium prices hitting $15,460.00. Louisiana came in second highest at $13,937.00. And though muted, the National Average price shows these risk costs were being passed along to all states.
Avoiding Storm Season Volatility Could Save You Hundreds
While this study does not produce a conclusive indicator, we have found a pattern showing that severe weather's financial effects now exert a greater influence on property premium pricing than ever before. Damage losses from stormy summer weather are now high enough so that their effects can ripple through the whole insurance market. Indeed, they even determine where an insurer can afford to do business.
The timing of insurance shopping becomes even more critical when considering the compounding costs homeowners face from other climate-related expenses. Georgia, which saw premiums increase by 23.86% in 2025 due to heightened severe weather activity, also faces rising energy costs as utilities invest in grid hardening and storm recovery. As a result, these expenses are ultimately passed on to consumers through higher electricity rates. Pennsylvania experienced a dramatic 30.87% spike in insurance costs after suffering repeated severe convective storms, while the state's aging energy infrastructure requires costly upgrades to handle increasingly frequent outages from extreme weather events. Ohio homeowners faced a 27.88% increase in insurance premiums as tornado and severe storm activity intensified, further compounding the burden of higher cooling costs during more frequent and severe heatwaves that strain the electrical grid and drive up summer energy bills.
As a result, we believe this pattern suggests that consumers should seriously consider when to shop for the lowest home insurance prices. Obviously, consumers who need a homeowner policy in the middle of summer may have little choice. However, they shouldn't settle for what's available at that moment for the long term.
Instead, the best time to shop home insurance for a long term commitment may be between January and April -- before the major hurricane forecasting services announce their annual predictions.
In this way, consumers may be able to save more money by avoiding some of the knock-on effects from an increasingly weather-nervous insurance marketplace.
Methodology
To show how these hazards correlate to real-world insurance costs for the consumer, we compared average insurance quotes from eight major insurance quote websites for all 50 states. Each quote was posted at different times during the period of April 24 to September 10, 2025.
The majority of online insurance quote services we relied on stated their pricing data came from Quadrant Information Services. Dates for quote services' pricing depended on web page publication date. This date was confirmed by examining the web page source code.
Quote prices are based on a $300,000 home. Online services offered prices reflecting the average annual premium price for each state.
At any one time, storm systems can affect entire regions of the U.S. Because of that, we found that it was easier to track storm events with homeowners' insurance prices by using U.S. Census regions instead of every single state. As a result, we used service quoted state prices to find the average annual premium price for each census region. We then took the dates for price changes and compared them to weather event data from the NOAA Storm Prediction Center and the National Hurricane Center.
Sources
Gallagher Re: Natural Catastrophe and Climate Report
https://www.ajg.com/gallagherre/-/media/files/gallagher/gallagherre/news-and-insights/2025/july/h1-2025-natural-catastrophe-and-climate-report.pdf
Swiss Re: Wildfires and severe thunderstorms in the US drive global insured losses to USD 80 billion in first half of 2025, Swiss Re Institute estimates
https://www.swissre.com/media/press-release/pr-20250806-wildfires-thunderstorms-global-insured-losses-first-half-2025.html
U.S. Treasury Federal Insurance Office: Analyses of U.S. Homeowners Insurance Markets, 2018-2022: Climate-Related Risks and Other Factors
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/311/Analyses_of_US_Homeowners_Insurance_Markets_2018-2022_Climate-Related_Risks_and_Other_Factors_0.pdf
Note: at present, this report is not available from the U.S. Treasury website. It is available via the Internet Archive:
https://archive.org/details/analyses-of-us-homeowners-insurance-markets-2018-2022-climate-related-risks-and-other-factors-0
NOAA: Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters
https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/access/billions/mapping
NOAA Storm Prediction Center 2025 Annual Preliminary Report Summary
https://www.spc.noaa.gov/climo/summary/
BankRate.com
https://www.bankrate.com/insurance/homeowners-insurance/homeowners-insurance-cost/
Insurify/Realtor.com
https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/home-insurance-rates-rise-by-state/
Insurance.com
https://www.insurance.com/average-home-insurance-rates
NerdWallet
https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/insurance/average-homeowners-insurance-cost
Matic.com
https://matic.com/cost-of-homeowners-insurance-guide/
MoneyGeek.com
https://www.moneygeek.com/insurance/homeowners/average-cost-of-home-insurance/
The Zebra
https://www.thezebra.com/resources/home/home-insurance-trends-report/
Forbes.com Advisor: The Average Home Insurance Cost For 2025
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/homeowners-insurance/average-cost-homeowners-insurance/