Consider for a moment what would happen if your city, county and school governments doubled your tax bills. "There would be a huge uproar,” said Daryl Ferguson, a retired executive from Beaufort. “There would be referendum votes, and people would definitely not be re-elected." Something similar has happened in coastal counties of South Carolina, but the government isn't raising your taxes. It's home insurance companies hiking your premiums. During the past decade, average home insurance bills statewide have risen 73 percent. But this increase masks much larger rate hikes on the coast. Some homeowners in Charleston, Beaufort and other coastal counties have seen their premiums triple, and now pay more for home insurance than property taxes. What's more, South Carolinians pay on average about one-quarter more for their homeowners' insurance than property owners in North Carolina and Georgia, a Post and Courier analysis shows. And insurance companies aren't talking about lowering rates, even though home values and the cost of replacing homes has stagnated or gone down. Just this year, Allstate, the state's second-largest company, raised rates 18 percent statewide and 35 percent for people who live in Charleston County and other areas near the coast. Then the company promptly announced that it was dropping 10,000 customers who had older houses and didn't have Allstate auto coverage.
Home values versus premiums
$419 million: Amount private insurance companies collected in home premiums during 1996
1.27 billion: Amount private insurance companies collected in home premiums during 2011 (up 203 percent)***
$96,000: The average home value in South Carolina in 1996
$188,000: The average home value in South Carolina in 2011 (up 95 percent)*
Sources: *Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, ** National Association of Insurance Commissioners, ***SC Department of Insurance
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