Homeowners insurance in Mississippi

Homeowners insurance is financial protection for your home, which is likely your biggest financial asset and where you’ll spend much of your life. Whether your house is mortgaged or fully paid off, you’ll want comprehensive homeowners insurance if you’re one of the 68% of Mississippi residents who owns their home rather than rents.

The statewide average cost of homeowners insurance in Mississippi is $2,442 per year, but your own policy cost is going to be impacted by multiple factors, namely the age and condition of your roof, your home’s construction type, the city it’s located in, your policy deductible, your claims history, and your credit score. Home insurance premiums also vary from company to company, even for the same property, which is why it’s so important to compare policy options and rates from several insurers — that’s where we come in.

To help simplify and better inform your shopping experience, Policygenius reviewed the five best homeowners insurance companies in Mississippi offered through our website. We then calculated the state’s cheapest and most expensive cities for home insurance based on hundreds of submitted quotes.

The 5 best homeowners insurance companies in Mississippi

Before selecting homeowners insurance that works for you and your home, you should do a little background research on the company supplying the policy. A solid homeowners insurance company will have good financial ratings, reliable customer service, affordable coverage, multiple policy options, and several available discounts.

Using that criteria, we determined the following five insurers were the best homeowners insurance companies in Mississippi. Read about our methodology here.

Best company for a cheap quote: Safeco

With an average quote of $1,614 per year, Safeco provides the cheapest Mississippi home insurance quote of any Policygenius partnering insurer. If you're a Mississippi resident looking for industry-best coverage at a low rate, then Safeco is the company that you want insuring your home.

Read our full review of Safeco here

Best company for high-value homes: AIG

Mississippi residents with high-value homes should consider a homeowners insurance policy with AIG. The luxury insurance company provides guaranteed replacement cost dwelling coverage, replacement cost coverage on all personal property, and additional services like appraisals and risk protection consultations. AIG homeowners insurance policies are primarily intended for Mississippi homes with a replacement cost of more than $750k.

Read our full review of AIG here

Best replacement cost policy: MetLife

Mississippi residents seeking to maximize structural coverage for their homes should consider MetLife’s superb replacement cost policy options. MetLife features three comprehensive tiers of coverage for both your home and personal property, with the option to add extended replacement cost and guaranteed replacement cost — two coverage add-ons that increase your dwelling coverage in the event your policy limit isn’t high enough.

Read our full review of MetLife here

Best financial ratings: Travelers

One important indicator of an insurance company’s ability to pay out claims in an effective and timely manner is its financial stability, and Travelers is among the highest-rated insurers in that area. Travelers has an A+ rating from credit-rating agency A.M. Best, the second highest score a company can receive. Travelers also has high marks with Standard & Poors, which measures long-term financial stability, as well as Moody’s, which measures what the expected losses would be if a company were to go into default.

Read our full review of Travelers here

Best company for the modern home: Hippo

As work-from-home equipment, personal computers, and smart home devices become a ubiquitous part of the modern home, it’s important to have proper coverage for all of that expensive tech. But what you often run into in homeowners insurance is policies that are dated and don’t meet the coverage needs of today’s homeowner — that is until Hippo came along. A basic Hippo home insurance policy comes with $8,000 in personal computers coverage, as well as $8,000 in home office coverage, making it a must for tech-savvy Mississippi residents.

Read our full review of Hippo here

Average cost of homeowners insurance in Mississippi by company

When comparing insurance companies, Mississippi residents may find that rates differ greatly from company to company for the same level of coverage. Certain companies may offer more coverage add-ons in a basic plan than competitors, while some may simply have higher rates than others.

After reviewing hundreds of quotes submitted with Policygenius, we found that Safeco is the cheapest insurance company in Mississippi with an average annual premium of $1,614 for $100,000–500,000 in coverage. Hippo is the most expensive in that coverage range with an average annual premium of $3,614 for the same amount of coverage.

Average cost of home insurance in Mississippi by coverage amount

The average cost of homeowners insurance in Mississippi will also vary considerably based on how much dwelling coverage you have on your home. Below is the average homeowners insurance quote for five different coverage ranges.

Average cost of home insurance in Mississippi by city

Insurance companies also price policies differently based on where in Mississippi your home is located. We found that the coastal city of Gautier has the highest rates in the state with a $6,621 average annual premium for $100,000-500,000 in coverage. Oxford, a city in Northern Mississippi, is the cheapest city in the state for home insurance with a $1,188 average annual premium.

We selected the 20 largest cities in Mississippi by population where customers have submitted quotes with Policygenius. Quotes are based on a coverage amount between $100,000 and 500,000.

The cheapest cities for homeowners insurance in Mississippi

The most expensive cities for homeowners insurance in Mississippi

Guide to homeowners insurance in Mississippi

Common causes of home insurance loss in Mississippi

Mississippi is the 8th most hurricane-prone state in the country. The state has experienced 19 landfall hurricanes in recorded history, with eight of those direct hits classified as major (Category 3–5). Due to its minimal coastline, landfall hurricanes are fairly rare in Mississippi, but tropical storms still manage to be the biggest cause of property loss in the state. In fact, from 1996–2014, hurricanes caused $373.5 million in annualized property damage, the most of any natural hazard during that span, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Other major causes of property damage include tornadoes ($57.3 million in annualized losses) and thunderstorms and lightning ($38.5 million in annualized losses).

Does homeowners insurance cover flooding in Mississippi?

No, homeowners insurance does not cover flood damage in Mississippi or any of the other 49 states. Mississippi residents can supplement that gap in coverage by purchasing a flood insurance policy. Flood insurance can typically be purchased through the same insurance company that insures your home.

Most flood policies are sold by private companies but administered by the federal government’s National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). An NFIP flood policy can cover up to $250,00 for the structure of your home and up to $100,000 for personal belongings.

Mississippi Insurance Department

The [Mississippi Insurance Department(http://www.mid.ms.gov/consumers/homeowners-insurance.aspx) is an essential resource both for Mississippi homeowners purchasing coverage for the first time and for those who already have insurance but have questions related to their coverage or would like to file a complaint.

What if I can’t get homeowners insurance?

Homeowners insurance companies can cancel your insurance for a number of reasons — maybe you filed too many claims in a short period of time, maybe the insurance company no longer offers coverage where you live, or maybe they determined your home was too risky to insure after a recent inspection.

If you’re struggling to find coverage, you can get last-resort coverage via a Mississippi Fair Access to Insurance Requirements (FAIR) Plan, a not-for-profit insurance association that provides basic coverage for Mississippi residents who are unable to get home insurance on the open market. To qualify for a FAIR Plan, you need to demonstrate that you’ve had at least three unsuccessful attempts to buy insurance from other companies.

Not where you live? We've got you covered, check out our guide to homeowners insurance in your state