Most people don't know that your monthly insurance payments can be impacted by the town you live in.
The part of the country you live in, the city and even the zip code can be a factor on how much you pay for auto, home and other insurance. The size of your town, theft statistics and probability of major storms all affect the number of claims an insurance carrier expects to pay and therefore often makes a huge difference in the cost of for your insurance policies.
The lines of insurance most impacted by your location include:
Vehicle insurance
Home insurance
Apartment Renters insurance
Healthcare insurance
Vehicle Insurance
People have more vehicle accidents in towns where there are more vehicles and people per square mile. Additional cars, means more autosto run into and more cars that can hit you. This means that the vehicle insurance company pays more in claims and the the rest of us pay more for the coverage. The crime rate, including the rate of vandalism and car thefts in a given area also has an impact. Severe weather, means more automobile accidents and higher premiums as well
House insurance
House coverage is also impacted by severe weather. Those living in hurricane zones are tremendously impacted by this fact. Mother Nature costs insurance carriers in other ways. Ice, rain and low temperatures cause more and also higher costs for coverage.
The cost of rebuilding and repairing homes in a town is yet another factor that makes prices for insurance go upward or downward. If lumber or other construction materials have higher prices or the cost of labor is higher in your town verses the one next door, your prices may be much higher.
Apartment insurance
The crime rate can make a huge difference in whate we pay to cover our apartments. Theft is one of the major things that an apartment renters insurance contract protects us against and therefore if there are more break-ins in your area your apartment insurance carrier may pass those higher prices on to their policy holders.
Health Care insurance
Location has less to do with the frequency of sickness and injuries than it has to do with the cost of that treatment. The cost to set a leg in a little town in Wisconsin will be much less than the price to set the same broken bone in Boston. When medical professionals cost more, insurance costs more. Insurance companies may charge the resident of the more expensive area a much higher rate because of this.
What to Do?
It is unlikely that you will ever change your residence based solely on potential increases or decreases in your insurance premiums. But, if you're looking for a new home, you should take this into account along with the other factors you and your spouse would generally consider about when selecting your next home.
Explain your situation to broker that works with people in an area that you are considering living in and ask them to estimate costs for different insurance coverages. The insurance lines ones that are most affected by geography are auto, homeowners, apartment renters and health insurance.
Often, a more expensive house will have lower insurance costs. This can mean that you and your family can afford to live in a place to live that you might not have thought you could.