La. homeowners rates ease rise, remain 3rd highest in U.S.

Homeowners insurance premiums in Louisiana remain among the nation’s highest, but are rising much more slowly than they did in the first two years after Hurricane Katrina, new data from by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners shows. Louisiana remains the third-most expensive market in the nation for homeowners insurance, behind Texas and Florida, reports The Times-Picayune. The statewide average premium was $1,430 in 2009, the most recent year for which data is available. The average rose 9.9% in 2006 and 11.4% in 2007—but only 0.35% in 2008 and 1.78% in 2009. The 2007 increase was the nation’s largest, the one in 2006 the third largest. Louisiana Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon says the later moderate premium increases reflected in the NAIC data are consistent with the stabilization that he has seen in the homeowners market. “I am encouraged, and not surprised,” he said. Based on information at the Louisiana Department of Insurance that ultimately will be analyzed by the insurance commissioners group, Donelon says figures for 2010 and 2011 will also show moderate rate increases. Most of the increase came from State Farm, which took statewide average rate hikes of 8% to 9% in each of the past three years. State Farm controls about 30% of the state’s insurance market. But after 2011, Donelon said, homeowners insurance rates could resume greater increases because of the influence of a new batch of computer catastrophe models such as RMS 11. Read the full story here.