Seven in ten U.S. homeowners report that their home insurance costs have climbed in recent years, and nearly half of that group says the increase has been steep. The figures, released by Pew Research Center on May 6, 2026, land alongside a federal review confirming that premiums in disaster-prone areas have outpaced national inflation. Together, the two data points expose a widening gap between what insurers charge and what many households can absorb, particularly in regions battered by storms, wildfires, and flooding.
Disaster-prone counties and the premium gap hitting budgets
The headline numbers are hard to dismiss. Pew found that 71% of U.S. homeowners say their home insurance costs have gone up over the last few years, with 42% describing the rise as happening “a lot.” Those self-reported perceptions align with federal data. A Government Accountability Office report, GAO-26-107867, found that homeowners insurance premiums generally tracked inflation at the national level but rose more sharply in disaster-prone areas.
That split matters for a specific reason. If premiums in counties with recent FEMA disaster declarations grew at least 15 percentage points faster than the national inflation baseline, the cost burden falls hardest on the people least able to relocate or self-insure. The GAO findings point in that direction without publishing county-level tables, showing that geographic risk is already reshaping what Americans pay. Lower-income homeowners and those in the South and West reported steeper increases in the Pew survey, reinforcing the pattern.
For a household earning $50,000 a year, a jump of several hundred dollars in annual premiums is not an abstraction. It competes directly with groceries, car payments, and property taxes. When the increase concentrates in areas already recovering from storm damage or wildfire, the financial pressure compounds: rebuilding costs rise, insurers reprice risk, and homeowners absorb the difference or drop coverage entirely.
What the GAO and Pew data actually show
The GAO report, described in detail in its online findings, provides the federal baseline. Nationally, premium growth has not dramatically outstripped the consumer price index. The divergence appears when the data is filtered by geography: areas with higher exposure to natural disasters saw costs climb faster than the inflation-adjusted norm. The report examines pricing, regulatory mechanics, and trends in availability, affordability, and profitability across the homeowners insurance market.
Additional context from the GAO product summary underscores that insurers in high-risk regions have faced rising reinsurance costs and larger catastrophe losses, pressures that ultimately show up in homeowner bills. Regulators in some states have responded by tightening rate approvals, while others have allowed more flexibility, contributing to uneven premium trajectories across the country.
Pew’s survey adds the consumer side. Beyond the 71% and 42% topline figures, the data includes breakdowns by income, region, and political affiliation, plus questions about what homeowners believe is driving costs higher. Many respondents point to more frequent severe weather, higher rebuilding costs, and insurer profits as perceived drivers. The survey captures perception rather than policy-level dollar amounts, but the scale of the response, covering a large share of the homeowning public, suggests the price pressure is broad enough to register across demographic lines.
The two sources reinforce each other without perfectly overlapping. The GAO measures actual premium trends against inflation; Pew measures what people feel. When both point the same direction, the signal is stronger than either alone. Rising costs in disaster-prone areas show up in official statistics and in household budgets, suggesting that what might once have been a localized issue is becoming a national affordability concern.
Affordability, coverage cuts, and uneven protections
As premiums climb faster in high-risk regions, households face a narrowing set of choices. Some shop aggressively and raise deductibles to keep payments manageable. Others reduce coverage limits, accept exclusions for certain perils, or drop optional protections like extended replacement cost. In the most strained cases, homeowners may fall behind on payments or forgo insurance altogether, leaving mortgages at risk and families exposed to catastrophic loss.
The GAO’s broader oversight work has long highlighted how disaster costs intersect with federal programs, from flood insurance to post-storm aid. The new homeowners insurance analysis fits into that picture by showing how private-market pricing can shift risk back onto individuals and, ultimately, taxpayers when uninsured or underinsured households turn to federal disaster assistance.
Policy responses are still evolving. State regulators can influence rate approvals and encourage mitigation credits, while local governments can update building codes and land-use rules to reduce future losses. At the federal level, the GAO report suggests that better data on affordability, coverage gaps, and insurer withdrawals from high-risk markets would help lawmakers weigh options, from targeted subsidies to incentives for resilience investments.
For now, the combination of GAO’s premium tracking and Pew’s homeowner survey offers a clear message: insurance costs are rising in ways that many Americans can feel, and the sharpest pain is concentrated where climate and disaster risks are highest. Whether policymakers treat that as a warning or a new normal will shape how securely millions of families can hold onto the homes they already have.
Warren Cohen is a finance writer based in Phoenix, Arizona, covering personal finance topics including credit, banking, and beginner investing. He earned his degree in business administration from Arizona State University and began his career working in consumer finance, where he gained direct experience with lending and credit systems. He now writes for personal finance websites and fintech platforms, focusing on clear, practical content that helps readers make informed financial decisions.
