How Location Affects Your Home Insurance Premium

When you were looking for real estate to buy, you probably heard the phrase "location, location, location!" While the location is a major factor in how much you'll wind up paying for your home (both in terms of the overall listing price as well as your property taxes), location is just as important when it comes to other aspects of your home payments, too. One big example of this has to do with how much you wind up paying for home insurance each year.

If you're interested in saving money on your home insurance, you'll likely want to compare policies to see if money can be saved by switching your insurer. After all, if you love your home and the location where you live, it doesn't make sense to move homes just to save on insurance fees. That being said, if you're in the market and haven't purchased a house or condo yet, here are a few things to keep in mind about how location affects your insurance premium each year.

What locational factors impact homeowners' insurance?

There's a broad range of factors that ultimately make a difference when it comes to the rate you'll pay for your homeowner's insurance. For example, your location can impact the crime rate in your city and neighborhood, as well as what sorts of natural disasters you're more likely to experience. Just like some areas of the world are more susceptible to hurricanes, others may be more at risk for things like tornadoes, fires, or even earthquakes. That doesn't necessarily mean that you're at fault for wanting to live on those sorts of regions, but it does mean that you should be factoring that into your homebuying decision since it might necessitate different sorts of liability coverage or even cap your coverage limits.

Does location even impact other types of home insurance, such as home and contents insurance?

Location can also affect other kinds of home insurance you might be looking into, like home and contents insurance. For example, while most home and contents insurance policies are based on the cost of the belongings you're insuring, location can impact other aspects of a policy. That's because if your home is located in a flood plane, near where bushfires are common, or even near a sinkhole, your policy may cost more due to the higher likelihood that some sort of natural disaster could happen to your home. Even if it's more expensive to insure your personal belongings because of the location of your home, it may still be worth getting your personal property covered, particularly if it's quite valuable.

Even if you're only in the market for a home now, it's not too soon to start looking at different insurance company's insurance policies. This is an easy way to reduce your monthly cost while still protecting your home and its contents. The internet makes comparing different policies, discounts, and promotions simple, especially with the proliferation of websites like iSelect. For example, when it comes to comparing home and contents insurance with iSelect, you'll be asked to input your address and postal code in order to compare insurance companies which are able to provide you with coverage.

Once you've found companies to compare, you'll be able to filter the results you see based on price and other factors that may be important to you. It's important to consider other factors, too, like customer service and what different customers' experiences have been from the insurance company. After all, even if you're saving a lot of money on your home insurance policy, if your service is less than desirable, it's probably better value to pick a slightly more expensive insurer rather than sacrificing quality.