To help you find the best homeowners insurance company in New York, the This Old House Reviews team reviewed dozens of providers and rated them on coverage options, pricing, and unique benefits.
Before buying a home insurance policy, we recommend requesting quotes from a few insurance providers, since pricing and coverage options can vary based on your personal information and property details.
To get a home insurance quote in your area, use this online tool, call 855-948-5219, or enter your ZIP code below.
New York’s Top 3 Home Insurance Companies
Here are the top three providers of home insurance in New York:
- Lemonade: Easiest Sign-Up
- Allstate: Best Coverage Options
- Liberty Mutual: Best Discounts
Lemonade: Easiest Sign-Up
- J.D. Power Rating: N/A
- A.M. Best Rating: N/A
Lemonade has the easiest and fastest sign-up tool in the home insurance industry. It also takes pride in a mission-driven business model that donates each customer’s unused premiums to certified charities at the end of the year. Use the company’s online quote tool to receive a pricing estimate on your policy.
Lemonade Home Insurance Benefits
- A cutting-edge mobile app for policy management, customer service, and claims
- Inexpensive and customizable plans
- Easy claims filing process
Get Your Free Home Insurance Quote: Lemonade Home Insurance Quotes
Learn More: Lemonade Home Insurance Review
*A.M. Best ratings accurate as of January 2023
Allstate: Best Coverage Options
Allstate has the best homeowners insurance in the industry because of its impressive coverage, customer service, years of experience, endorsement options, and customizability. For example, Allstate offers 24/7 customer service, while most insurance providers have limited hours for policy and billing questions. Additionally, you can choose your liability, medical payments to others, and deductible amounts.
Other Allstate Home Insurance Benefits
- Bundling discounts with auto insurance policies
- A helpful quote tool
- Online resources that help new homeowners determine how much coverage they need
Get Your Free Home Insurance Quote: Allstate Home Insurance Quote
Learn More: Allstate Home Insurance Review
Liberty Mutual: Best Discounts
Not only does Liberty Mutual provide a 5% discount to anyone who purchases a policy online through its quote tool, but it also offers an extensive list of discounts, such as employment status, education level, early signing, safety features, and multi-policy bundling. Although our sample quotes for Liberty Mutual were slightly higher than the quotes we received for Lemonade, you may be able to qualify for lower premiums based on your eligible discount opportunities.
Liberty Mutual Home Insurance Benefits
- A useful mobile app
- 24/7 claims support
- Extensive additional coverage options
Get Your Free Home Insurance Quote: Liberty Mutual Home Insurance Quote
Learn More: Liberty Mutual Home Insurance Review
New York Homeowners Insurance Coverage
Most homeowners insurance policies in New York include the following coverage types with customizable limits:
- Dwelling—This covers the rebuilding of your house after a destructive peril, such as wind damage or fire. The coverage limit for this category is typically equal to the total value of your house. Speak with an appraisal professional for advice on how much your home is worth before signing up for a policy to ensure you purchase the right amount of coverage.
- Personal property—This coverage protects your personal belongings and usually amounts to around 70% of the dwelling coverage limit, but companies like Lemonade allow you to customize this limit to your coverage needs. Take inventory of your belongings to determine how much they’re worth, then set your coverage limit as close to that amount as possible to ensure complete protection.
- Loss of use—If you’re forced to relocate due to damages caused by a covered event, you could qualify for a loss of use claim that helps pay for additional living expenses. Coverage limits for this type of protection will depend on your home insurance company and the details of the claim.
- Other structures—This coverage typically includes a limit of 10% of your dwelling coverage. It covers damages to structures that aren’t considered part of your home, such as a backyard shed or fence.
- Personal liability—Liability protection is a different form of coverage that protects your financial well-being if you’re responsible for someone else being harmed on your property. It can pay up to the agreed amount for medical payments and legal fees associated with the accident.
- Medical payments to others—If someone got injured in your home, their medical payments could be covered under this category, since the injury would be considered a no-fault injury on your property.
How Much Does Home Insurance Cost in New York?
Home insurance rates in New York will depend on a variety of factors, such as your location, property details, credit history, and personal information. Based on sample quotes our team received on a 1,800-square-foot single-family house in New York City with a value of around $650,000, the average monthly cost from these providers is $202.33. For a home of the same size valued at $375,000 in East Amherst, New York, the average monthly premium is $77.66.
For those looking for a cheap homeowners insurance policy, we recommend Lemonade.
Factors To Consider Before Buying Homeowners Insurance
Here are a few factors to consider before purchasing a home insurance policy:
- Crime rate—Some areas in New York, especially in or around the city, have higher crime rates. These neighborhoods have statistics that home insurance providers use to assess risk. In general, most policies cover theft of your personal belongings and vandalism.
- Personal belongings—Take inventory of your personal property before purchasing home insurance. You don’t want to be under-covered during a claim because you selected a lower personal property coverage limit when you signed up for a policy. Allstate has a digital tool for keeping track of your home’s inventory and can help assess the amount of coverage you need.
- Home value—Some providers may not cover higher-value homes, while companies like Lemonade have better premium rates for high dwelling coverage limits. This is important to consider in New York City, since houses there are typically valued at much higher amounts than the rest of the state.
- Endorsements—Purchasing additional coverage is a great way to get the most out of your policy. For example, you can add identity theft protection to keep yourself protected from fraudulent activity. You could also add water backup coverage to your policy for extra protection from damages caused by clogged drainage or sewage lines.
Comparing the Top Providers of Home Insurance in New York
Which is the Best Homeowners Insurance in NY for You?
All three home insurance providers listed in this review offer comprehensive and affordable home insurance policies. If you’re looking for a budget-friendly policy, we recommend Lemonade.
Allstate is a great choice for the best overall policies, offering comprehensive coverage and excellent customer service. Consider Liberty Mutual for a variety of discount opportunities that can help lower your premium.
Regardless of which company you’re leaning towards, we recommend getting quotes from all three providers to compare coverage and pricing based on where you live.
Enter your ZIP code into the tool below, fill out this online form, or call 855-948-5219 to get started.
Frequently Asked Questions
Our Rating Methodology
The This Old House Reviews Team is committed to providing comprehensive and unbiased reviews to our readers. This means earning your trust through transparency and having the data to back up our ratings and recommendations.
With that in mind, we created an objective rating system to score each home insurance company. Here’s what that review process looked like:
- We analyze the information on each company’s website. This allows us to determine what products and services are offered by each home insurance provider.
- We get a sample quote from the companies by either talking to a sales representative or by using the online quote tool. This tells us what a policy looks like and costs.
- We test customer service by talking to a company representative, finding out their hours of operation, and determining what technological features are available for customers.
- We update all of this information on a continuous basis, storing it in a proprietary database that allows us to compare dozens of home insurance companies against each other.
With this data, we created a rating methodology to score each home insurance company. Our rating system is a weighted, 100-point scale based on the following factors:
- Coverage (30): We rated home insurance companies higher if they offered the six main types of homeowner protection—dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments to others coverage.
- State availability (7.5): Companies scored higher if they covered more states than their competitors.
- Customer service (15): This factor is based on our communications with the company representatives, as well as the companies’ claims and quotes processes, availability throughout the week, and customer service information found on their websites.
- Technology (12.5): Technology can increase the efficiency of filing and tracking home insurance claims. Companies scored higher if they had technology options like mobile apps and online chat functions.
- Reputation (20): We gauged trustworthiness based on years of experience and Better Business Bureau ratings.
- Additional benefits (15): Companies that offered optional features, like discounts and endorsements, scored higher than competitors that didn’t.
The This Old House Reviews Team has a full-time researcher who collects and regularly updates data points from every company to help us compare them on key factors such as coverage, service, and dependability.
To share feedback or ask a question about this article, send a note to our Reviews team at reviews@thisoldhousereviews.com.