New Hampshire

What is influencing insurance rates in New Hampshire? – NH Business Review

Published

2 years ago

June 19, 2024

What is influencing insurance rates in New Hampshire? – NH Business Review

Home and car insurance rates have risen nationally due to inflation, extreme weather events and litigation

The bad news is that home insurance rates have risen nationally by an average 34% between 2018 and 2023. The good news is that the rate of increase in New Hampshire was 17.9%.

Car insurance rates are also climbing — 36% nationwide since January 2020. While rates have been climbing in the Granite State, the average cost here is among the lowest in the country.

But it still begs the question: Why are insurance rates climbing, even in New Hampshire?

Some insight was offered by a Property & Casualty Markets Symposium hosted by the New Hampshire Insurance Department. Inflation, weather events and litigation were the three primary reasons for property insurance increases, according to information offered at the March symposium held in Concord.

Property and casualty insurance includes many forms of coverage, usually associated with homeowners insurance, auto insurance and renters insurance.

Insurance Commissioner D.J. Bettencourt said he convened the symposium “to help us understand what’s going on and to help the consumer understand why they’re experiencing what they’re experiencing.”

“One of the most frequent questions that we get is: Why are my premiums going up? Why am I not able to get access to coverage that I’ve been able to get access to before? And of course, all of that speaks to the dynamics of this interesting market that we’re experiencing right now,” said Bettencourt.

The featured presenter at the symposium was Robert Hartwig. He is a clinical associate professor of finance in the Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina, and he serves on the Federal Reserve Board’s insurance policy advisory committee.

A frequent presenter on issues related to insurance markets, Hartwig cited inflation as a major source of the increases to policyholders. As costs have risen for insurances those costs are passed on to the consumer, according to Hartwig.

For insurance underwriters, 2023 was the worst year since 2017 and the second worst year since 2011.

“One of the major issues for the industry — and that is really the principal driver in many instances — is the issue of inflation which is still working its way, kind of a pig through a python type of situation,” said Hartwig.

He noted that the Consumer Price Index since the end of the COVID pandemic has risen 19% for consumers, but, for insurers, their costs have increased because of the higher costs (as much as 41%) for plumbers, contractors, laborers and building materials.

“Whereas inflation has subsided in the broader economy, it’s at its peak in the property-casualty insurance industry today at least in terms of passing it through to consumers,” said Hartwig.

For every $100 paid in premiums in 2023, $101 was paid out to cover insured losses, according to Hartwig. “That’s a prescription for a pretty bad year,” he said.

Data from Realtor.com shows that, between 2018 and 2023, the average cost of homeowners insurance in New Hampshire has increased 17.9%. Nationally, the increase was 33.8%, with some of the highest increases in Texas (59.9%), Colorado (57.9%), Arizona (52.9%), Utah (51.9%) and Nebraska (48.6%).

Bankrate says the current average annual premium for homeowners insurance in the state is $973, based on a home valued at $300,000. It notes that many variables contribute to the cost of insurance and that specialized coverage (for flooding, for instance) is a separate cost.

Car insurance rates have climbed 36% since January 2020, according to consumer price data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Within the past year alone, rates for car insurance have soared more than 20%, the data shows.

Bankrate says the average cost of car insurance in the U.S. is $2,311 per year for a full coverage policy, while New Hampshire drivers pay an average of $1,660 annually. CarInsurance.com puts the cost as the eighth lowest in the country.

As with homeowners insurance, the cost of insuring a vehicle in New Hampshire depends on many, many factors, such as age, driving record, where the car is kept, even a driver’s credit rating.

In terms of homeowners insurance, Realtor.com cites climate change–affected weather as a primary reason for increases everywhere.

“Climate risk is a big deal. It can impact home values, insurance costs and the overall stability of a housing market,” said Jiayi Xu, economist at Realtor.com. “The issues are whether you can get access to affordable insurance and how much the costs will increase. In areas with high climate risk and lower home prices, people are tolerating these risks in exchange for more affordable housing.”

In his presentation, Hartwig did not refer to climate change. Rather, he used terms such as “wild weather” and “disaster” to describe an additional reason after inflation for the rise in insurance costs. He also used the term “cats,” insurance shorthand for catastrophic events, such as hurricanes, floods, wildfires, tornados and the like.

“The Northeast is one area where you’ve not had some of the major cats that we’ve seen in some other parts of the country. You’ve had some wild weather, including floods and flooding of vehicles and that can contribute certainly to some of the increases we’ve seen here,” he said.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a ranking of states and counties using what is called the Climate Resilience Screening Index (CRSI). It measures the resilience of U.S. counties and communities to natural disasters.

The national average index is 4.213. New Hampshire comes in with a higher overall resiliency at 9.154. Within New England, Maine (17.971) and Vermont (12.848) are higher, Massachusetts (7.889), Connecticut (3.702) and Rhode Island (3.533) are lower.

The greatest risk for New Hampshire is flooding, related to heavy rain and/or melting snow events and to flooding along the coast as sea level rise continues.

Hartwig talked about the E&S markets. Excess and Surplus (E&S) is a specialty market that offers insurance coverage for risks that standard insurance companies don’t for properties in, say, wildfire zones, high crime areas and along the coast. These E&S market coverages are more expensive because of the nature of the risks involved.

“A lot of this is being generated in places like Florida, California, Texas, Colorado, places like that, and some coastal areas,” said Hartwig. “I don’t think New Hampshire accounts for very much of this, but you may have observed yourself some migration of premiums in New Hampshire to the E&S market.”

Some major insurers are leaving high-risk states. Allstate and State Farm, for example, said in 2022 that they’d stopped writing new policies in California because of the wildfire risk. In April, just weeks before the start of hurricane season, thousands of Floridians lost their ASI-Progressive home insurance coverage.

The New Hampshire Insurance Department says no such incidents of homeowners being dropped by their insurance companies have been reported to it.

As for the E&S market cited by Hartwig, the Insurance Department says it represents less than 1% of total market share in the Granite State. The activity in that market has been largely related to flood insurance, according to the Insurance Department.

The third factor cited by Hartwig was litigation payouts by insurance companies, which he described as “a tax that has to be passed along.”

Hartwig cited a number of reasons for litigation and large awards: “Increasing propensity to sue,” he said, “large jury awards, courts increasingly favoring plaintiffs, general distrust of large corporations that they feel deserve to be punished, third-party litigation funding — you maybe heard you can invest in lawsuits nowadays, aggressive plaintiff bar advertising.”

Another factor in play, as it affects auto rates in New Hampshire, is the greater degree of claims coming from reckless and dangerous driving incidents.

Bettencourt was among a group on June 4 that sought to raise awareness about the dangers of aggressive and reckless driving, driving at excessive speeds, and other hazardous behaviors on New Hampshire’s roadways.

The event was held at the New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon and included representatives from the insurance department, the NH Department of Safety, NH State Police, American Automobile Association of Northern New England, the speedway, the New Hampshire Motorcyclists’ Rights Organization, and the New Hampshire Automobile Dealers Association.

“The connection between reckless driving habits and escalating auto insurance rates is very, very clear. Engaging in speeding or distracted driving not only jeopardizes your own safety, but also endangers the lives of fellow motorists on the road. It is critical for Granite Staters to understand that their choices behind the wheel also affect the availability and affordability of insurance coverage for all drivers. The New Hampshire Insurance Department is hearing a lot from consumers about the rising cost of auto insurance premiums,” Bettencourt said in his remarks.

“Our message today is to emphasize that reckless driving behaviors are not only a safety threat but also put at risk the affordability of auto insurance rates for all motorists. Motorists should be aware that a reckless driving citation, or some other serious motor vehicle violation, will be reflected in your auto insurance premiums for several years,” he added. “This is not going to be a one-time event for you. So please bear those things in mind, not only for your own safety, not only for your own ability to afford your auto insurance coverage, but for all Granite Staters to be able to have access to affordable auto insurance.”

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New Hampshire

Court hearing for Cher’s son on charges he broke into a New Hampshire home canceled

Published

3 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Court hearing for Cher’s son on charges he broke into a New Hampshire home canceled

Crime

Elijah Allman’s arrest on March 1 was his second in New Hampshire in a matter of days.

FILE – This Feb. 26, 2016 file photo, shows the entrance to St. Paul’s School in Concord, N.H. (AP Photo/Jim Cole, File) AP

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press

March 11, 2026 | 4:50 PM

2 minutes to read

A court hearing for Cher’s son Wednesday over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home this month has been canceled.

Elijah Allman’s arrest on March 1 was his second in New Hampshire in a matter of days. Allman, the 49-year-old son of the iconic singer and actress, was also detained Feb. 27, accused of acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in Concord.

It is unclear if Allman, of Malibu, California, has any connection to the home in Windham, New Hampshire. He is being held in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.

The hearing Wednesday was continued until an undetermined date after Allman got an attorney Wednesday morning. The attorney, Sarah Landres, did not respond to a request for comment.

Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, is charged with two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it.

Officials at St. Paul’s School said Allman last month identified himself as the parent of a prospective student and slipped into the dining hall as some students were leaving the building. Police responded to reports that he was disturbing people in the building.

He was charged with four misdemeanors in the school incident: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime. He was released on bail.

Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working.

In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman’s struggles with his mental health and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.

The petition says the superstar performer’s son is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he was in a good place, was attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his estranged wife.

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New Hampshire

Cher’s son heads to court over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home

Published

15 hours ago

March 11, 2026

Press Room

Cher’s son heads to court over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home

The son of Cher is scheduled to be in court Wednesday for a hearing over allegations he broke into a New Hampshire home earlier this month.

It was the second arrest in a matter of days for Elijah Allman, 49, of Malibu, California, who was detained Feb. 27 after allegedly acting belligerently at a prestigious prep school in New Hampshire. It was unclear if Allman had any connection to either St. Paul’s School or the home in Windham, New Hampshire.

Allman remains in the Rockingham County Department of Corrections in what is called preventive detention, Superintendent Jonathan Banville said.

Allman, whose father was the late singer Gregg Allman, faces two counts of criminal mischief, one count of burglary and a count of breach of bail for breaking into the home on March 1. Police said in a report that Allman did not have permission to be at the home and forcibly entered it .

In the incident at the prep school, Allman was charged with four misdemeanors: two counts of simple assault, criminal trespass and criminal threatening. Allman was also charged with a violation of disorderly conduct, which is illegal in the state but not considered a crime.

At about 7 p.m. that day, Concord police responded to reports that Allman was disturbing people in the dining hall of St. Paul’s School. After charging Allman, police said he was released on bail as his case works through the court system.

Allman did not respond to an email requesting comment, and a phone number for him was not working. It was unclear from the court records if Allman has an attorney.

In December 2023, Cher filed a petition to become a temporary conservator overseeing her son’s money, saying Allman struggles with mental health issues and addiction have left him unable to manage his assets and potentially put his life in danger.

The petition from the singer and actress said Elijah Allman is entitled to regular payments from a trust fund. But “given his ongoing mental health and substance abuse issues,” she is “concerned that any funds distributed to Elijah will be immediately spent on drugs, leaving Elijah with no assets to provide for himself and putting Elijah’s life at risk,” the petition says.

A few weeks later, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jessica Uzcategui denied the request, saying she was not convinced that a conservatorship was urgently needed. Allman was in the courtroom with his his attorneys, who acknowledged his previous struggles but argued that he is in a good place now, attending meetings, getting treatment and reconciling with his previously estranged wife.

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