Company-initiated homeowners insurance non-renewals climbed between 96% and 216% in every region of the country from 2018 to 2024, according to a market study released by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners on Aug. 5, 2026. The NAIC study covers 715 carriers and roughly 103 million homeowners policies in force in 2024. Alongside the non-renewal surge, inflation-adjusted premiums rose in all four regions over the same six years.
What the 96% to 216% range measures
The figure describes company-initiated non-renewals, meaning cases in which the insurer, not the policyholder, decided not to continue a policy at the end of its term. It is a measure of how much more often carriers walked away from existing customers, not a count of homes lost or a premium change. The NAIC reported that the increase fell between 96% and 216% depending on the region, and TheStreet’s account of the report says the West saw its non-renewal rate more than triple.
The NAIC divides the country into four regions: the Northeast, the Midwest, the Southeast and the West. The range held in each of them. No part of the country escaped an increase, though the size of the jump varied widely from one region to the next.
Premiums rose too, by very different amounts
The study also tracked premiums after adjusting for inflation between 2018 and 2024. The NAIC’s own release states that the average premium per policy rose in every one of its regions, with inflation-adjusted increases running from 18.3% to 43.3%, or about 2.4% to 5.3% a year. It does not attach those endpoints to named regions. The regional split – 18.3% in the Northeast, 24.7% in the Midwest, 26.5% in the Southeast and 43.3% in the West – comes from TheStreet’s and HousingWire’s accounts of the full report, which HousingWire rounds to 18%, 25%, 27% and 43%.
The West therefore stands out twice: it had the steepest premium increase and the non-renewal rate that more than tripled. For a household in that region, a non-renewal notice can mean both a search for new coverage and a higher price once it is found.
The risk gap inside the numbers
TheStreet’s coverage of the report adds a split by risk level. The highest-risk ZIP codes faced non-renewal rates roughly 80% higher than the lowest-risk zones. Homeowners in high-risk communities paid an average of $2,321 a year in premiums, which is 82% more than those in lower-risk areas. Claims in high-risk zones averaged $24,000 per incident, against $19,000 in the least-exposed communities.
NAIC President Scott White, who is also Virginia’s insurance commissioner, said in the association’s release that the report “provides authoritative and data-driven insights into market conditions across the country and further empowers informed decision-making by regulators, policymakers and other stakeholders.” The statement frames the study as groundwork for regulators rather than a finding about any single insurer, and neither the release nor the coverage names individual carriers.
Why the data stops at 2024
Every number above describes 2018 through 2024. The study is a look back, published in August 2026, and it is not a measure of what carriers are doing this year. Policies in force are counted as of 2024, and the premium and non-renewal comparisons end there.
More recent signals point in a different direction on price. HousingWire, citing S&P Global Market Intelligence, reports approved homeowners rate changes of about 13.6% in 2024, about 6.3% in 2025 and 1.8% through July 2026. Insurify’s own data put the national average homeowners premium at $3,012 a year in the first half of 2026, up 2.2% over the first six months, according to Insurify’s analysis. Those are approved rates and quoted averages, a separate measure from the NAIC’s non-renewal data, and neither source says non-renewals have reversed.
What the study leaves open
The sources read for this report do not give a state-by-state breakdown of non-renewals, and the NAIC’s full report sits behind a page that would not open, so the region-by-region figures here are attributed to TheStreet and HousingWire rather than to a line read in the report itself; the association’s own release carries the 96%-to-216% range, the 715-carrier count and the 18.3%-to-43.3% premium band. HousingWire notes that state markets are moving at different speeds, a point it illustrates with California, Florida and North Carolina. As one quoted observer put it in that coverage, “There isn’t one insurance market to track. There are many, moving at their own pace.”
For homeowners on fixed incomes, the practical consequence is financial: a non-renewal forces a new policy purchase on short notice, and the NAIC’s premium data shows the replacement price has been climbing in every region. The study’s most direct contribution is the scale, 715 carriers and about 103 million policies, behind the finding that insurers dropped customers far more often in 2024 than in 2018.
A Non-Renewal Notice Arrives and the Rest of the Home Budget Still Has to Hold
Older homeowners who receive a non-renewal letter often face a higher insurance bill at the same moment that property taxes, heating and cooling costs and repairs keep coming due. Several of those other costs have assistance programs of their own, each with separate applications and renewal dates that are easy to lose track of while a new policy is being shopped.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit that lays out the 5 kinds of property-tax relief and heating, cooling and home-repair help, with an application log and renewal calendar for keeping track of each request.
Start lining up property-tax, heating and home-repair help alongside the search for a new policy →
This article was produced with AI assistance and checked against the primary sources linked above.
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.
