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Minnesota home insurance rates rose steeply in the first six months of 2026, up 13% from the end of 2025, according to a report from insurance comparison website Insurify.
Minnesotans continue to see the biggest rate increase in the country, with some counties seeing a spike of 20% in just six months.
The increase of $457 brought the state's average annual insurance premium to $3,987 as of June.
In 2023, the state had insurance rates below the national average; rates have surged since then and now exceed the national average by over 30%, driven by hail and thunderstorms. Home insurance is more expensive in five states, including Florida, where rates are, on average, $8,486 a year.
The National Centers for Environmental Information estimates that Minnesota had $10.3 million in property damage from severe weather events from January through May. Most of the damage occurred on April 17, when five tornadoes struck southeastern Minnesota and caused over $9.7 million in property damage, according to the agency's estimates.
That's still far less than the billions of dollars of damage in previous years, which led to losses for insurers and catapulted Minnesota's home insurance premiums to some of the highest in the nation. In 2022, a hailstorm with golf ball-size hail in some areas caused at least $2.6 billion in damage; a powerful 2023 thunderstorm resulted in at least $1.5 billion in damage from hail and wind.
Large hail could become more common as the climate warms: In 2024, Northern Illinois University researchers projected that warmer climates over the course of the century would melt smaller hailstones but also result in stronger updrafts producing larger hailstones.
Of the 10 counties in the nation with the highest premium increases in 2026 so far, five are in Minnesota: Le Sueur, Watonwan, Martin, Hennepin and Steele counties, according to the Insurify data. Every county in Minnesota now has an average home insurance rate that's higher than the national average.
At the same time that insurance premiums are rising, homeowners have found that insurance policies are covering less than expected -- and roof repair costs are multiplying, CBS reported. The Better Business Bureau has also warned homeowners to beware of "storm chasers" -- scammy contractors who knock on doors after storms and pressure homeowners into contracts.
Insurify projected Minnesota's insurance rates to rise only 4% in 2026. The state's rates have already exceeded that in just the first six months of the year.