Gephardt: Location Can Affect Insurance Savings After Home Improvement

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – Many Utahns have used their time at home during the pandemic to make improvements to their abodes, and even small projects can save you a lot on home insurance. But as the KSL Investigators crunched the data, something surprising jumped out: Those insurance discounts do not apply the same to everyone.

It makes sense that making upgrades to a home can save someone money on their insurance.

A new deadbolt will limit break-ins. A new roof holds up better in the wind. A lightning rod will prevent a house from catching fire if it gets struck by lightning.

Nationally, those three renovations will drop the cost of homeowners insurance by $114 per year, on average, but not for Utah homeowners. In the Beehive State, those three changes will only knock $27 off the annual premium, according to a new study from Value Penguin/LendingTree.

“When you think about what insurers base their rates off of, they’re typically looking for any hints towards a recurrent claim – something that’s going to happen again and again,” said the study’s author, Andrew Hurst.

The potential insurance savings in Utah are a glass-half-full sort of situation. Utah sees fewer break-ins, fewer lightning storms, and less devastating winds – especially compared to the Midwest and some neighboring states, which top the insurance savings list when it comes to those projects.

“There’s not that much in terms of savings for the average Utah resident, especially relative to the average, or especially relative to somewhere like Colorado or Wyoming where they’re seeing almost $500 off their policy,” said Hurst.

This data was based on averages, so determining how much you will actually save will take a one-on-one conversation with your agent.