Where Montanans live significantly influences how much they pay for home insurance, according to a new report that studied rates for one benchmark property in 37 Montana cities.

Annual premiums can vary by 144 percent from the most expensive city, Miles City, to the cheapest, which is Plains, according to research conducted by ValuePenguin. The company is a consumer research firm based in Manhattan, N.Y.

Billings has some of the highest homeowners insurance rates in the state.

Quotes were collected from four major insurance carriers – Amica, Allstate, State Farm, and Farmers. The model home was a two-story, 2,000-square-foot house with an attached garage. The model home was built in 2000. It was equipped with both a burglar and fire alarm. The sample home insurer was a single, non-smoking male, in his early 40s.

On the company's model property in Plains, homeowner's insurance cost on average $945 per year. On the other end of the spectrum in Miles City, the average cost of a home insurance policy was in the neighborhood of $2,305, according to the report.

"Due to the fact that these prices can vary drastically, city to city, we hoped to bring a great level of transparency to the trust cost of owning a home in Big Sky Country," said Brian Quinn, co-founder of ValuePenguin and author of the study.

The cities and towns with the cheapest homeowners insurance rates in Montana are all found within the northwestern parts of the state, in the Flathead National Forest regions, according to Quinn. The average cost of a one-year home insurance policy for the research model property in these cities is $1,122. That is 25 percent less than the typical Montana home.

The five communities with the cheapest homeowners insurance rates in Montana are:

1. Plains, $945 per year

2. Whitefish, $1,131 per year

3. Eureka, $1,152 per year

4. Kalispell, $1,174 per year

5. Libby, $1,208 per year

The most expensive cities for homeowners insurance in Montana are found in the central, and eastern portions of the state – close to the North Dakota border. The cost of a home insurance policy in these cities is significantly more expensive than the rest of the state, averaging $2,069 per year, according to Quinn.

Homeowners Insurance
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The cost of home insurance can be attributed to myriad factors, Quinn said.

"In the past, we have seen correlation between geographic location, types of firefighting services offered, constructions and labor costs, all influencing prices," Quinn said. "It is difficult to pin down the specific reason behind each city’s prices."

Researchers worked to collect unbiased, uniform data, controlling for the highest amount of variables possible, to create a comparison.

The five cities with the most expensive homeowners insurance are:

1. Miles City, $2,305

2. Glendive, $2,150

3. Sidney, $2,023

4. Glasgow, $1,944

5. Billings, $1,923

 

 

 

 

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