More and more Americans are ditching their home insurance due to rising costs for coverage.
According to a recent study from the Insurance Information Institute, 12% of Americans no longer have home insurance. That's the highest level of uninsured homeowners the research group has ever seen. This year's figure is up from 5% in 2019.
Higher premiums are hurting households who are already struggling to pay for other necessities.
Laith Daik, President of Texas Loan Star Inc., says the situation has become worse in recent years.
"Insurance premiums have doubled and tripled over the last three to five years and have really increased dramatically over the last two years," he said.
Around 40% of Americans own their home outright, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Homeowners insurance may be viewed to some as an optional purchase.
Daik said with the price of just about everything else going up, there's very little wiggle room for some homeowners to squeak out hundreds of more dollars a month on a homeowners insurance policy.
"You have higher costs across the board and then you get your insurance bill and it's two or three times more than what it was the previous year," said Daik.
Daik expects this trend to stabilize with premiums coming down a little bit in the time coming.
