It is important if you are looking to get some Rhode Island Home Insurance Cover that you consider your various options, and take steps to compare a number of different insurance providers before finally deciding.
There can be a great deal of variation between the types, levels, price and quality of the cover that insurance companies offer, and it makes sense to take an active role in examining the differences between competing companies before settling on one.
Rhode Island is the smallest state in terms of physical area, but has a relatively large population for its size of just over a million people crammed into the area around its Capital, Providence which means that come election time Rhode Island actually commands the second highest number of House of Representative votes as a proportion of the population, tending to be a democratic stronghold most of the time.
Rhode Island benefits from relatively safe cities and low crime figures, which in 2009 saw it ranked as the 9th safest state, but has fairly heavy property taxation and hence is not always a natural haven for real estate investors.
One of the biggest factors when insurance companies are deciding on how much to charge for their cover is usually the amount of storms that a state suffers from. As it is these unusual weather events that tend to produce the majority of large insurance claims, and lower numbers of storms tends to mean lower home insurance premiums.
In 2011 there were only 9 storms in Rhode Island, which is perhaps not surprising given its small size, but which still compares favorably to the next smallest state (in terms of area), Delaware which is approximately 50% larger, but had more than three times as many storms (32).
All of which makes it a little surprising that on average Rhode Island has considerably higher home insurance premiums then Delaware and most of the other states.
What is the Average Cost of Rhode Island Home Insurance?
The average cost of home insurance in Rhode Island is $897 according to data collected from the US Government, compared to $535 in Delaware.
This places Rhode Island as around the 11th most expensive state to buy home insurance in the United States.
It is not entirely clear why this is the case, except perhaps to surmise that because of the small physical size of Rhode Island and the very high population density that even the merest hint of storm potential has made the insurance companies very cautious when it comes to the cost of premiums.
Rhode Island is on the coast and so potentially in line for hurricanes, which if they hit, given the large amount of people crammed into such a small space, would inevitably cause billions of dollars’ worth of property damage.
Additionally, cities virtually always have higher home insurance costs, because more people living in a limited space brings with it larger amounts of crime and potential for damage to property that the insurance companies in Rhode Island may be liable to pay out on. And because Rhode Island is basically mainly one big city (Providence) and the urban sprawl that surrounds it, there is no offset balancing of large rural populations which tend to contribute to lower average premiums.
Regardless, the fundamentals of shopping around for the best deals, reading the policy documents through carefully before committing to a final solution and sorting out your cover all remain valid.
It is possible to get a good deal if you shop around for Rhode Island Home Insurance Quotes and really research the alternatives that you have before buying, even if getting as good a deal as someone in Delaware may be a little more difficult to achieve!
