Home Insurance

Yes and its higher if your house is mixed construction or almost (or is) impossible to find if your house is wood.

I know someone who owns a house on STT that is wood construction. Value of the house is over $1 million and they pay about $9,000 a year for insurance in 2007. This is a new learning that insurance on STX is so much higher than STT.

You can't self insure if you dont own the house outright.

Thanks Betty. Yes I understand you can not have a mortgage and self insure.....but is insurance on STX that much higher than STT?

Its the same. Just depends on the provider, but there are not much in the way of bargains in hazard insurance. And too much of a bargain would just make me nervous 😉 Always ask who their backer(not sure if this is the correct term) like lloyds of london, etc make sure you get someone with a good reputation who will pay in a disaster. Its not talked about much on this board. I've heard numberous people talk about living here after Marilyn and Hugo(personally not on this board). Not a blade of grass on the island, it taking anywhere from 3 to 6 months to get power, etc but I've never heard about how well insurance companies paid for the damages. Did most of them pay up?

Wood construction worth over $1 million insured for $9,000 a year? That's incredible. Do they have a 50% deductible or something? We live on STT in a masonry house and pay $1,000 a month.

Your insurance premium will vary depending on the number of credits a house may qualify for. If it is concrete construction with a concrete roof and hurricane shutters and not in a flood zone and not on the waterfront and sheltered in its location, you pay the lowest rate. That can sometimes be around 2% of 80% of the purchase price. You don't insure the land, just the value of the house itself.

Also, some people qualify for very low rates of insurance through AARP or a military program. Sometimes when you hear about unusually low insurance premiums the owner has that kind of insurance. Other times, the insurance rate was set years ago on a lower property value and hasn't been adjusted with the rising house value. The owner may not have as much coverage as they would need if something catastrophic happened. You generally have to have enough coverage to cover the mortgage value. If you don't have enough to rebuild, the bank is really just concerned that their investment is covered.

Right Alexandra. If a property is oceanfront then 70-80% of the value is in the land, not the house....so the cost to insure a $1 million dollar property might be only really insuring the $300,000 replacement cost, for example. Good point.

The insurance companies paid very well where I live with no problems after both Hugo & Marilyn here on STT. Our condo complex insurance costs about $25-$27K per year.

We pay 14 thousand a year for insurance. Concrete house not in a flood zone, have found an insurance company that will cut that in half after we get storm shutters.

which insurance company is that and where do you live?