Finding New Jersey Home Insurance Quotes
New Jersey home insurance quotes are probably going to feel like just one more list of tedious, bureaucratic numbers that require you to jump through hoops and make mind-numbing choices. In fact, your Garden State home insurance policy is going to be one of the most documents of your life. The housing crisis notwithstanding, many New Jerseyans still use their home as their biggest financial asset and piggybank of last resort. Thus, while car insurance is a necessary hassle that keeps you legal to operate a motor vehicle and keeps society running with a little less chaos, home insurance is your best –and sometimes only –protection against the calamitous loss of your home.
New Jersey Home Insurance Quotes: Average Claim, Premium Costs
The average cost for New Jersey home insurance is $726, slightly below the national average of $804. Of course, these figures are from 2006, the last year for which reliable figures are available. Since 2006, home insurance premium costs have likely dropped somewhat, not because homes are safer, but because home values have dropped. Cheaper homes are cheaper to insure. Moving forward, home insurance in the Garden State is likely to stay close to the national average with less risk and costs than Gulf states such as Texas, Louisiana, and Florida, but more risk and higher home values than many states in Midwest and western U.S. states.
So, what does this home insurance buy you? Well, standard New Jersey home insurance quotes typically cover the basic 11 perils of homeownership including fire, lightning, windstorms, hail, explosions, civil commotion, damage from aircraft and vehicles, smoke damage, vandalism, theft, and volcanic eruption. This doesn’t necessarily mean, however, that you should make a claim whenever damage occurs. Consider how much your deductible is and how much your premium costs may go up. In some cases, your policy may increase by hundreds of dollars a year. That said, the average home insurance claim is about $7,500, a sum too great for most homeowners to ignore.
Universal Access to New Jersey Home Insurance Quotes
Just as it is with other types of insurance, not everybody is a good bet. If you’ve filed multiple, eyebrow-raising claims or your home is deemed particularly vulnerable to the elements, home insurance companies may be reticent to provide you with coverage or deny you altogether. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean you have to go without. The New Jersey Insurance Underwriting Association provides public plans known as Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR).
If your home is among this high-risk group, you may need to buy supplemental home insurance. Few companies offer flooding protection without a separate coverage, known as an insurance rider. To make things easier, the New Jersey Department of Insurance requires that insurers provide you with consumer information on hurricane deductibles, flood insurance, and other critical information.
New Jersey Home Insurance Companies: Finding vs. Choosing
There are more than 60 insurance companies that offer homeowners insurance in New Jersey from AAA Mid-Atlantic Insurance to Zurich Financial Services. This is both a blessing and a curse. While it won’t be difficult to find a home insurance company in New Jersey, it can be difficult to choose the best company for you and impossible to find the time and patience to get a quote from each one. Fortunately, NetQuote has this problem covered. By filling out a simple online form, you will be matched to those companies that best fit your profile. This allows you to compare multiple New Jersey home insurance quotes, while weeding out less relevant companies.
