Thirty five million American homes carry no mortgage at all. More than half of them belong to somebody 65 or older. Among owners that age, 64 percent own the place outright.
That deed is the finish line most of us have been walking toward since the first payment.
And the bank was the one party that made you insure the house. When the loan closed, the requirement went with it. Escrow closed too, so the premium stopped arriving folded into a monthly payment and started arriving as a bill.
Harvard’s housing center found the part that stays quiet in the celebration. Owners who hold their homes free and clear are less likely to carry insurance against fire, flood and the other hazards.
The reason is plain enough. No lender is checking. And no reminder arrives.
Meanwhile the bill has been climbing faster than almost anything else in the household. Every single year.
The national average premium ran $2,948 last year and is on track for about $3,057 this year, by Insurify’s count. That is a fifth straight annual increase. Since 2021 the average has risen 46 percent, roughly three times general inflation.
The Consumer Federation of America went through the map. Premiums rose in 95 percent of American ZIP codes between 2021 and 2024.
What they buy
Coverage on a house with no loan on it. One payment, once a year, out of a fixed income. The line item nobody shops until it stings.
Where they moved
Florida, where the average premium is closing on $8,500, nearly three times the national figure. The hail belt is catching up fast. Minnesota rose 34 percent in one year.
So the retirement house is now the most expensive thing in the budget to protect. And it sits in the counties the cohort picked for the weather.
Where the cohort’s money sits this quarter, and the bill that arrives whatever else happens.
Which is where the whole thing turns. For most families the house is the estate. One uninsured fire takes the inheritance, the equity and the plan in an afternoon.
A paid-off deed feels like safety. It is also the moment the safety net became voluntary.
The honest limit here is the household. More than half of homeowners told Insurify they have already given something up to keep coverage. Almost three in ten said they would drop it entirely if they were allowed to.
That is the ceiling on the carrier as much as on the family. Price past what a fixed income can carry and the customer stops being a customer.
State regulators are the other brake. Rates get filed and approved. The political answer to a bad year is a cap, and then carriers stop writing instead.
The arithmetic
Census Bureau American Community Survey data, as tabulated by ResiClub: 40.3 percent of owner-occupied homes carry no mortgage, about 35 million households, of which 54 percent are headed by someone 65 or older, and 64 percent of owners 65 and over own free and clear. Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, Housing America’s Older Adults, on lower rates of hazard coverage among owners who hold their homes outright. Insurify, 2026 home insurance projections: a national average of $2,948 in 2025 and about $3,057 in 2026, a fifth consecutive annual rise, 46 percent above 2021, with Florida approaching $8,500 and Minnesota up 34 percent in a year. Consumer Federation of America on premium increases across 95 percent of ZIP codes between 2021 and 2024. Insurify survey data for the share of homeowners cutting elsewhere to keep coverage. The Federal Reserve’s 2024 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking reports shares of homeowners carrying no insurance at all.
Pull your policy out this weekend and read the dwelling limit. Compare it to what a builder would charge to put the house back up today, not to what you paid for it. Then find out which carriers are still writing in your county. That answer tells you what the next renewal is going to look like, months before it lands. The deed says the house is yours. Keeping it is still a subscription.
Andrew
Boomers Trade is written by someone getting older right alongside you, and watching who profits from it.
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