Carl Brooks
Your renewal notice arrived and the number on it was, once again, higher than last year. You filed it in the mental folder labeled “nothing I can do about it” and moved on. I get it. For the last three years, that was basically the correct response. The homeowner insurance market was brutal: premiums up 28% in 2024, up nearly 20% in 2025, and carriers quietly exiting states or cutting coverage options. Shopping around often meant finding out you had fewer choices than you thought, not more.
That has started to change. On August 6, 2026, insurance technology company Matic released a mid-year report built on 3 million quotes, and the headline is something I genuinely did not expect to write this soon: a record share of homeowners actually saw their renewal premium go down. Not slow down. Go down. According to Matic’s data, 11.7% of renewing homeowners received a lower premium in the first half of 2026, compared to 7.4% in all of 2025 and just 4.9% in 2024. Average renewal increases slowed to 10.6%, down from 19.4% last year. And the number of competing quotes available per homeowner jumped 27% year-over-year, and is up 74% since the market’s worst point in 2024. That last number matters more than any single rate figure. Competition is how consumers win.
The window right now is real. But it’s also uneven, time-sensitive, and full of the same traps it always was.
- A record 11.7% of renewing homeowners saw premiums drop in H1 2026, up from 4.9% in 2024.
- Average renewal increases slowed to 10.6% in H1 2026, down from 19.4% in full-year 2025.
- Available quotes per homeowner are up 74% since 2024's market low point.
- New-policy premiums grew only 5.9% year-over-year in H1 2026, vs. 18.7% in 2024.
- California, Florida, and New Jersey still saw double-digit increases , relief is not universal.
Why Premiums Are Cooling Now
The short version: reinsurance got cheaper, and that savings is trickling down. Reinsurance is what your insurer buys to protect itself from catastrophic losses, and for two years it was extraordinarily expensive after a string of major disasters wiped out reserves industry-wide. At the June 1, 2026 renewals, reinsurance rates fell roughly 10 to 25%, extending a softening trend that had already started to show at the January renewals. When carriers pay less to backstop their own risk, they can price new and renewal policies more competitively without losing money.
That’s the structural reason. The practical result is that carriers who pulled back from certain markets in 2023 and 2024 are starting to return. New entrants are quoting again. And the data from Matic’s August report confirms this isn’t theoretical: new-policy premiums grew only 5.9% year-over-year in H1 2026. In 2024 that number was 18.7%. If you’re shopping for a new policy rather than renewing, you’re in an even better position than someone just waiting for their renewal.
The Relief Is Not Evenly Distributed
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Here’s where I have to pump the brakes a little, because I’ve seen too many homeowners read a national average and assume it applies to them. It doesn’t always. The Matic report is clear that California, Florida, and New Jersey continued to see double-digit premium increases in H1 2026 despite the national softening. Hail- and wind-prone Midwest states remain tight as well.
If you’re in one of those markets, this article still applies to you, but with lower expectations. Shopping is still worth doing, because more carriers are quoting even in stressed markets than were a year ago. But you may not find relief of the same magnitude that someone in, say, Ohio or Tennessee might. The gap between the national story and your zip code can be enormous.
The chart below puts the recent trend in context:
What “Shopping Now” Actually Looks Like
I want to be honest about something: shopping for home insurance is genuinely annoying. You need your current declarations page, your home’s square footage and construction details, a rough replacement cost estimate, and patience for multiple conversations. What I’d tell a friend to do is not to just pull up a comparison site and click the cheapest option. That’s how people end up discovering, at claim time, that their “great deal” had a separate wind deductible of 2% or a roof-age exclusion buried in the endorsements.
The table below shows what changed in the market between 2024 and 2026, so you understand what you’re actually shopping into:
| Metric | 2024 | 2025 | H1 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Avg. renewal premium increase | 28% | 19.4% | 10.6% |
| Avg. new-policy premium increase | 18.7% | 8.1% | 5.9% |
| Homeowners seeing a premium decrease | 4.9% | 7.4% | 11.7% |
| Quote availability change (vs. prior year) | (baseline low) | partial recovery | +27% YoY |
The practical takeaway: new-policy pricing is growing slower than renewal pricing right now. That gap creates an incentive to switch. If your renewal just arrived with a 12% increase, and a competing carrier is quoting new-policy business at 6% growth, the math starts working in your favor even before you account for any loyalty discount you may think you have. What most people don’t realize is that “loyalty discounts” in homeowner insurance are often smaller than the discount you’d get as a new customer elsewhere.
The Hurricane Season Factor
August is a reasonable time to act, but it’s not a neutral time. Atlantic hurricane season peaks in September and October, and a major storm event, especially one that generates widespread insured losses, can shift carrier appetite quickly. I’ve seen carriers restrict new business bindings mid-season before. That’s not a prediction, it’s a pattern worth knowing.
The Scotsman Guide’s August 2026 coverage of this same market shift notes that rates remain at historic highs in absolute dollar terms even as growth slows. So the improvement is real, but we’re cooling off from a very hot place. Rates haven’t returned to 2020 or 2021 levels. They’ve just stopped climbing as steeply.
If you’ve been meaning to shop your coverage for two or three years but kept assuming it was futile, the data now says otherwise. Get at least three competitive quotes, read the declarations pages carefully before you cancel anything, and talk to an independent agent who represents multiple carriers rather than one tied to a single company. An independent agent can often surface options that comparison sites don’t reach, particularly from regional carriers that don’t advertise heavily but price competitively.
Consulting with a licensed insurance professional before making any changes is advisable. Everyone’s coverage needs, property characteristics, and risk tolerance are different, and what’s right for one homeowner won’t be right for another.
The market has genuinely turned a corner. But corners still require you to look both ways before you cross.
Sources
- Home Insurance Report: Market Turns a Corner As Premium Growth Slows and Competition Returns (August 6, 2026)
- Home insurance premium growth eases, though rates remain at historic highs (August 6, 2026)
- 2026 Home Insurance Trends: Mid-Year Outlook (Mid-2026)
Photo: Mikhail Nilov via Pexels
This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute insurance advice. Coverage details, exclusions, and costs vary significantly by insurer, policy type, and location. Always review your policy documents and consult a licensed insurance professional for advice specific to your situation.
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