In Florida, as Hurricane Isaias blasted through the panhandle, the candidates for governor jousted over who could best tame the highest home insurance rates in the country. In North Carolina, where flooding and skyrocketing construction costs have lifted premiums, voters are weighing a constitutional amendment to cap property taxes. And in Kansas, where hail storms and intense winds have pushed the cost of insuring a house into the top five nationwide, a usually sleepy race for insurance commissioner is surprisingly fierce.
In the angry debate over soaring costs of living this campaign season, the price of keeping a roof overhead — specifically insurance and property taxes — has joined gas, diesel, and groceries as a top voter concern three weeks before the midterm elections. Rising homeowners rates — driven by the fires, hurricanes and tornadoes worsened by climate change — have helped put reliably Republican states like Kansas and Florida onto the battlefield, pushed North Carolina toward the Democrats and roiled Democratic politics in California. Home-insurance premiums have climbed 46 percent since 2021, nearly triple the rate of inflation.
One recent survey found that 58 percent of Americans said rising insurance costs would make them more likely to vote. Nearly one-third of North Carolinians and more than a quarter of Kansans said they had postponed major purchases or life decisions because of insurance spikes. And if insurance companies make people’s lives difficult, he warned, “I will be their worst nightmare.” Hurricanes and wildfires might grab the headlines, but out of the 10 most expensive states for home insurance, six sit in the nation’s midsection, in high-risk corridors known as Tornado Alley and Hail Alley.
In Kansas, where insurance claim payouts have nearly doubled in two years to $879 million,the annual premium for a $300,000 house with a $1,000 deductible is now $5,289 — 84 percent higher than the national average. Two years ago, Sarah Lopez-Lewis and her husband, Brent Lewis, Wichita natives with backgrounds in health care and education, were informed by their mortgage company that their monthly payment would jump from $3,000 to $4,000, driven by taxes and insurance. After rising homeowners insurance added $1,000 to their monthly mortgage payments, Sarah Lopez-Lewis and Brent Lewis sold their house and moved with their twins, Allie and Lucy, to a townhouse.Credit...Chase Castor for The New York Times The timing was brutal.
With their twin toddler daughters requiring specialized medical care, the Lewises had left their jobs to launch a nonprofit focused on affordable child care. Reluctantly, they put their house on the market and moved last month into a townhouse rental in a Kansas City exurb closer to the girls’ doctors. One thing within their control, though, is voting for a new insurance commissioner to regulate the rates and conduct of home, health and auto insurance companies.
Hawkins’ opponent, State Senator Dinah Sykes, the chamber’s Democratic leader, represents Johnson County, outside Kansas City, Kan. Elected in 2016 as a Republican, she was one of four legislators, all women, to switch parties two years later, uncomfortable with the party’s rightward tilt. A self-described “data nerd,” Ms.
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