When you become a homeowner in Georgia it is important that you get comprehensive Georgia Home Insurance that properly protects your home and its contents. If you are like most people, then your home is probably your single biggest investment, and so it is vital that you take proper steps to protect it.
Additionally, the costs of replacing furniture, kitchen equipment and carpets, let alone personal property that you REALLY care about! Is often far higher than you may realise, and so it makes sense to get proper levels of protection that mean that if disaster does strike that at least you will have enough money to pick up the pieces and put your life back together.
There were an estimated 3.7 million burglaries in the United States EACH YEAR from 2003 to 2007 according to statistics from the Bureau of Justice, and the average person in Georgia has a one in twenty-one chance of becoming a victim of property crime according to statistics from Neighbourhood Scout which monitors crime rates across the whole of the United States.
What this means is NOT that you should be scared of your own shadow or afraid to go out, but simply that you do need to be realistic about the risks to yourself and your property and get decent levels of cover.
In addition of course to burglary and theft, good Georgia Home Insurance will also cover you for fire damage which is also more common than you might think.
The National Fire Protection Association estimated that fire departments in the United States responded to 373,900 fires in residential homes every year between 2004 and 2009, and that cumulatively these caused $7.1 billion worth of damage, 2,650 deaths and 12,890 injuries. So this is certainly something very serious.
It is interesting to note that of those fires over two-thirds had no kind of smoke alarm present, which accounts for the fact that often even taking very basic safety measures in your home, like fitting smoke alarms, leads to the home insurance companies in Georgia and elsewhere, to give you discounts on your premiums.
What Are Average Georgia Home Insurance Costs and Can You Do Better?
It is normal that even if we accept that it makes sense to get covered for Georgia Home Insurance that you would want to get the best possible deal. So the natural thing to do is to first take a look at what constitutes average Georgia Home Insurance, and then ask if we can do any better.
Fortunately it is relatively easy to investigate the average costs of home insurance in Georgia, because the US Census Bureau has compiled statistics from the different state insurance departments which explores the average costs of various types of insurance across the United States.
The latest of these reports was published in 2011, and shows the rates across the country for 2007 to be an average home insurance cost of $822, with Georgia fairing surprisingly well with the average cost of home insurance in Georgia being considerably cheaper than the national average at just $724.
The reasons for this relate largely to the lack of major hurricanes in Georgia during the 20th Century, with not even a single major hurricane impacting on the coastline, as compared to many monster Hurricanes in Florida for example (1992 – Hurricane Andrew and 2005 – Hurricane Katrina together caused over $100 billion worth of damage).
But it is worth considering that the 19th Century in Georgia saw three major hurricanes in 1854, 1893 and 1898 which not only killed many thousands of people, but also caused extensive damage. So Georgia is very far from being a ‘safe’ state when it comes to storms and hurricanes, it is simply that the weather has been kind for quite some considerable time, although how long it will remain so is anybody’s guess.
The time to get Georgia Home Insurance is BEFORE any of these type of events happen, because after they happen not only does the cost of home insurance premiums skyrocket (Florida had an average home insurance premium of $1534 as compared to the $724 of Georgia); but also it becomes increasingly difficult to even get covered, and when you can the terms and conditions under which the insurance companies will pay out becomes more restrictive.
So it really is in your financial interests to get the ball rolling as quickly as possible and sort out some Georgia Home Insurance Quotes online right now.
