UAF: North Carolina homeowners pay an average of $310 more per year for insurance coverage than the rest of the country
NORTH CAROLINA – Last week, Unlocking America’s Future was joined by State Senator Natalie Murdock, Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers, extreme weather survivor homeowner Bob Tatum, and Gavin Magor from Weiss Ratings to discuss the escalating home insurance crisis in North Carolina. UAF released a new report after the discussion detailing the skyrocketing cost of home insurance in North Carolina and how the Trump administration is threatening to make the problem even worse by politicizing FEMA and cutting disaster recovery funds.
“North Carolinians need elected officials willing to challenge insurers’ pattern and practice of delaying, lowballing, and denying, not politicians bending over backward for insurance corporations who’ve made nearly $100 billion in the state over the last ten years,” said Kyle Herrig, Unlocking America’s Future spokesperson. “Families are being hammered by higher costs across the board, and the last thing they need is to continue to pay more for less on their home insurance.”
Home insurance rates have spiked 38% since 2019 in North Carolina, with homeowners paying an average of $310 more per year. State Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey had approved home insurance rate hikes 16 times during his tenure, and scheduled a hearing to consider a whopping 68.3% increase requested by insurers on May 4th, 2026.
Homeowners can also face massive rate hikes under the state’s ‘consent to rate’ law, which allows insurance companies to jack up rates up to 250% after policyholders unknowingly consent to massive rate hikes buried in the fine print. During UAF’s press call, State Senator Natalie Murdock (District 20) said, “Consumers are unknowingly consenting to this because they don’t know exactly what it is that they’re signing.” Murdock said the first priority is legislation to make sure policyholders know what they’re agreeing to — similar to laws that require credit card companies to spell out their terms.
Read more below.
The Mountaineer: Costs of coverage: Home insurance crisis hits Helene-impacted areas
Home insurance is meant to be a safety net to give homeowners peace of mind when the unthinkable happens — but in North Carolina, insurance companies are failing to hold up their end of the deal.
In the aftermath of Helene, one out of every four home insurance claims went unpaid — meaning a quarter of all insured homeowners in WNC were left out to dry with damaged homes and no insurance money to fix them.
“Delay, deny — that’s what they do, and it’s frustrating,” said one of those homeowners, Bob Tatum, whose Avery County home was demolished by the storm.
At the same time that insurance companies are denying claims, they’re raising rates. Home insurance premiums in the state have spiked by 38% since 2019, and more increases could be on the way. Right now, North Carolina homeowners pay an average of $310 more per year for insurance coverage than the rest of the country.
“This is shaping up to be a perfect storm of unaffordable home insurance combined with little to no assistance from FEMA and the federal government to build resilience and recover,” said Kyle Herrig, a spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future which detailed the extent of NC’s home insurance crisis in a recent report.
And the state’s skyrocketing home insurance rates are only made worse by the rising cost of living across the board.
“When you look at the affordability crisis, which is not just sweeping over our state but the country, it really is putting at risk people’s ability to keep calling the place they call home, home,” said Canton Mayor Zeb Smathers.
###
