A standard homeowners insurance policy includes coverage for dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, liability, and medical payments to others. With a top home insurance company, you’ll have peace of mind that you won’t have to cover the cost of damages on your own. Securing home insurance is also different than signing up for a home warranty in North Carolina. We recommend North Carolina homeowners have both to minimize out-of-pocket cost. Keep reading to learn our recommendations for the best homeowners insurance policies in North Carolina.
3 Best Home Insurance Companies in North Carolina
We rated North Carolina insurance providers based on coverage, cost, discounts, endorsements, customer service, and more. Keep reading to learn about the three companies that rated the highest.
- Allstate: Best Coverage Options
- Farmers: Most Customizable Coverage
- Liberty Mutual: Best Discounts
Allstate: Best Coverage Options
- J.D. Power Rating: 829/1000
- AM Best Rating: A+
An Allstate policy includes dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, personal liability, and medical payments to others coverage. Because Allstate wants each policy to be tailored to the home it’s protecting, the company offers 10 endorsements that range from identity theft restoration and electronic data recovery to water backup and a green improvement reimbursement.
Benefits of Allstate Homeowners Insurance
- 24/7 customer service
- Nine discounts to lower home insurance rates
- Choice of 60% or 75% of dwelling for personal property coverage
Get Quote: Allstate Homeowners Insurance Quote
Learn More: Allstate Homeowners Insurance Review
*AM Best ratings accurate as of August 2023
Farmers: Most Customizable Coverage
- J.D. Power Rating: 820/1000
- AM Best Rating: A
Farmers offers the most customizable home insurance policies and allows you to choose up to 200% of dwelling for other structures and personal property coverage, while other insurance companies like Allstate and Liberty Mutual cap it at 70%–75%. You also have the option to choose up to $2 million of liability protection. Like Allstate, Farmers has a variety of endorsement options that include identity shield and eco-rebuild coverage.
Benefits of Farmers Home Insurance
- Choice of 10%, 20%, or 30% of dwelling for loss of use coverage
- Deductible split by peril
- Premium won’t increase after a claim if you’ve been claims-free with Farmers for the past five years
Get Quote: Farmers Homeowners Insurance Quote
Learn More: Farmers Home Insurance Review
Liberty Mutual: Best Discounts
- J.D. Power Rating: 806/1000
- AM Best Rating: A
Liberty Mutual typically offers multiple discounts that help keep your premium cost low. Common discounts include ones for bundling different types of insurance, being claims-free, and using auto pay. For more comprehensive coverage, consider opting into Liberty Mutual endorsement options like water backup and sump overflow, identity fraud expense, earthquake coverage, and personal property replacement cost.
Benefits of Liberty Mutual Home Insurance
- Insurance claims center open 24/7
- A company with over 100 years of experience providing insurance products and services
- Customizable coverage limit options
Get Quote: Liberty Mutual Homeowners Insurance Quote
Learn More: Liberty Mutual Home Insurance Review
North Carolina Homeowners Insurance Coverage
North Carolina policies typically include six areas of coverage:
- Dwelling—This type of coverage protects the parts of your home that are built-in like the cabinetry, HVAC system, and foundation, and will pay to rebuild your home if an event destroys it.
- Other structures—This covers detached structures on your property, like detached garages, sheds, and fences. Similar to dwelling coverage, it will rebuild these structures if an event destroys them. A typical amount of other structures coverage is 10% of dwelling coverage.
- Personal property—This part of your policy protects your personal belongings if they’re damaged or destroyed. This coverage is typically 50% of dwelling coverage.
- Loss of use—If an event damages your home and you have to leave it temporarily for repairs, your provider will cover living expenses during that time. This is usually 20% of dwelling coverage.
- Liability—Liability protection covers medical bills, legal fees, and repairs or replacements when you’re responsible for injuring someone or damaging their belongings. Most insurance companies recommend getting $300,000 worth of this coverage.
- Medical payments to others—When a guest is injured in your home, your policy will pay a certain amount of their medical bills. A standard amount is $1,000 per person.
How Much Does NC Homeowners Insurance Cost?
According to the Insurance Information Institute, the average cost of a homeowners insurance policy in 2017 was about $101 per month. Insurance rates in North Carolina were more affordable than the industry average and cost around $90.50 per month.
Factors to Consider Before Buying Homeowners Insurance
Consider how these factors will affect your insurance premium:
- Natural disasters—North Carolina is susceptible to flooding, tornadoes, and hurricanes. While most insurance companies don’t protect against natural disasters, you can usually buy an endorsement to protect against them. Liberty Mutual has a hurricane endorsement and Amica®, another national insurance company, has a catastrophic coverages endorsement for natural disasters. If you live along the coast, you may have to buy a separate flood insurance policy to protect your home against hurricane damage.
- Cost to rebuild your home—The rebuilding cost of your home determines dwelling, other structures, personal property, and loss of use coverage. The best way to estimate this cost is to talk to a local appraiser who is familiar with the housing market and how much it costs to build a home. You can also purchase $100 to $155 of protection per square foot or use the estimation given to you by your insurance company.
- Inspection—If your home is older, an insurance company will likely require a home inspection to assess how likely it is that damage will occur before providing you with a quote. Most companies perform a 4-Point Inspection, which looks at the roof, plumbing, electrical, and HVAC.
- Discounts—The best way to save on an insurance policy is to look for a company that offers a variety of discounts. Both Liberty Mutual and Allstate commonly offer many discount options.
Compare Homeowners Insurance Coverage Options
Our Conclusion
Allstate, Farmers, and Liberty Mutual offer customizable homeowners insurance policies with multiple discounts to help you save on your premium.
To see how much a home insurance policy would cost, call 855-948-5219 or use the zip code tool below to get quotes from all three companies:
Useful Resources for North Carolinians
FAQs About Homeowners Insurance in North Carolina
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.