State Farm Homeowners Insurance Review 2023

State Farm Basic and Extra Homeowners Coverage

Just a quick note. State Farm’s website doesn’t do justice to the coverage you’ll actually find when you build your quote. When it was time to get down to the nitty-gritty, I discovered plenty of unexpected protections. Here’s a quick overview.

Standard Coverage

• Dwelling: My property coverage isn’t my home’s market value. It’s the amount I’m telling State Farm I’ll need to rebuild my house in the event of a covered peril. (Theft, fires, and storms are the big ones.) If you feel State Farm’s estimate isn’t enough, you can always add extra dwelling coverage to offset inflation and/or increases in building costs.
• Other structures: State Farm insured my garage, and any other structures on my property, at 10 percent of my dwelling coverage. That’s standard. But I couldn’t tweak this amount like I could when I was customizing my Nationwide homeowners coverage. Not a big deal for me personally, as $24,000 was plenty to cover my garage. If you’ve got a fancier setup (garage, gazebo, shed, etc.), you may want to keep this in mind when deciding on extra dwelling coverage.
• Personal property (replacement cost value): State Farm’s replacement cost value coverage was music to my ears. If there’s ever a choice between covering your stuff for its actual cash value (ACV) or its replacement cost value (RCV), I recommend giving RCV some serious thought. It’s the only way your settlement payout will be enough for you to buy back your stuff new.
• Personal liability: My State Farm personal liability coverage works in two directions. It protects my family if a guest gets injured on our property and if the fam causes damage to anyone else’s property. The $100,000 that came with my State Farm quote was a little low. Raising it to the standard $300,000 nudged my quote up by only a buck.
• Medical payments: Having $1,000 of coverage for my guests’ medical bills is enough for me (and for most everybody). If your situation is different, you can always increase this amount.
• Loss of use: If I end up spending more than my normal cost of living to stay at a hotel while my home’s being fixed, State Farm’s loss of use coverage will kick in and pay me the difference — up to 20 percent of my property coverage.
• Valuables (jewelry and furs): If I’m being honest, I was a bigger fan of the 2.0 version of valuables coverage I found when I reviewed Lemonade homeowners insurance. Cameras, bikes, and fine art!
• Business property: State Farm’s business property coverage isn’t for my office, not even if it happens to be physically inside my home. It’s for equipment I use for work; i.e., my desktop, laptop, hard drive, and speakers. The default limit is $2,500 (for equipment in my house), but I can increase it to $5,000.
• Building ordinance: Even if you’ve got the extra dwelling coverage to fix your house at today’s prices, you’ll still want to build up to code. State Farm’s building ordinance protection gave me 10 percent extra to do that.

State Farm’s 360Value Tool helped me figure out the right amount of dwelling coverage.

Extra Coverage

• Water back-up: Repairs for busted sump pumps or clogged sewers can easily run into the thousands of dollars. I was pleased to see that $5,000 worth of backup insurance pushed my State Farm quote up by only $2 per month. Backup insurance can run $9 per month and higher.
• Earthquake: Here’s a sobering fact: 57,508 earthquakes have struck over the past 365 days.1 And not all of those tremors came from fault lines. Fracking and mining can cause enough shaking to damage our homes and possessions. State Farm’s earthquake coverage came with a minimum 5 percent deductible. It also drove my quote up by $20 per month.
• Identity restoration: It’s nice to see that State Farm is taking family identity theft protection seriously. At $25 yearly, State Farm’s Cyber Event, Identity Restoration, and Fraud Loss coverage (CEIDR) is definitely affordable. Beyond that, the details are a little murky. Is State Farm providing the identity theft monitoring tools, or are they collaborating with a third-party service like Progressive does with IDnotify? I’d like to know. For more on Progressive’s identity theft monitoring options, by the way, check out my Progressive homeowners plans and pricing guide.
• Special computer coverage: Over the next few years, expect to see more variations of computer and portable devices coverage, both as extra endorsements and separate insurance. Unusually, State Farm’s special computer coverage ($1 per year) extends to operating systems and networks, which, again, leaves me with more questions than answers.

Getting a Quote With State Farm

My State Farm quote was highly customizable, if a little old-fashioned-looking.

At first sight, State Farm’s online quote builder looked more like a USPS tracking form than some of the fancier home insurance widgets I’ve played with. But it gets the job done. Once State Farm pulled up my “virtual” property, I reported on the security I had in place and filled in any gaps (major renovations or upgrades), and out popped my quote.

All of that was par for the course.

Then State Farm threw me a curveball: a whopping 40 percent discount for bundling my home and auto insurance. How is that even possible? Let’s break it down.

State Farm Homeowners Insurance Rates

No matter how many hours you spend studying home insurance premiums, you’ll never arrive at a predictive rate that makes sense for even a whole state.

For my quote, I checked out a few properties in the Greensboro and Charlotte areas of North Carolina; i.e., inland enough not to be considered a high risk for wild weather.

I scoped a variety of price points, but the property I’m quoting below is an older-than-average house (1969) with a market value slightly over the national median ($257,000). I did check off some major overhauls (roof, wiring, and plumbing), but those hardly impacted my State Farm quote.

Cost

State Farm offered me 40 percent off my premium for bundling auto and homeowners insurance.

My $109.66 State Farm quote was actually higher than average for North Carolina. According to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC), the median HO-3 insurance premium for North Carolina homes in the $200,000-$290,000 range was $89.25 in 2018.3

That may be true, except, one, home insurance premiums have gone up since 2018. And, two, that was before I figured in my State Farm auto bundle, which could potentially drop my premium to $71 monthly. If that still isn’t hitting home, State Farm’s bundled quote was even cheaper than my cheapest Lemonade quote — something I never expected to see.

Here’s a complete breakdown of the HO-3 package that State Farm quoted me.

* Up to 10% of my property coverage to offset future costs for rebuilding to code

Estimated Monthly Rate Based on Home Value

It goes without saying that the home you insure will be different from mine. As long as you keep that in mind, the table below will give you a ballpark idea of what to expect from State Farm for standard HO-3 coverage for a home with standard fixtures and home security; i.e., no earthquake, water backup, or flood insurance.

* These rates are for home insurance only, not for State Farm auto and homeowners bundles.

State Farm Customer Experience and Claims

The past two years have been a doozy for all of us, insurance companies included. All things considered, State Farm isn’t doing badly in the customer complaints department. Yes, they racked up a slightly higher than average score (1.63) on the NAIC’s national complaint index. But we’ve seen other popular insurance providers with substantially higher complaint levels.

I’d say a better indicator of the State Farm experience is J.D. Power’s 2021 overall customer satisfaction study. State Farm scores fourth there (out of a packed field of 20). State Farm also earned a solid score in digital experience thanks to its handy mobile app, which lets customers file claims in minutes.

Or you can take it directly from a lifetime State Farm customer whose property was leveled by a tornado back in 2017. An agent was on her property in less than two hours, she said. And an hour after that, she had her settlement check.

Discounts

• Multiple lines: This is just another way of saying “bundle.” Typically, insurance companies will shave 4 to 10 percent off our total bill when we double up. As we saw above, State Farm offers a lot more than that.
• Home security insurance: This is a win-win discount. Outfitting my home with a home monitoring system (fire, smoke, or burglar alarm; preferably all three) makes it safer. Safer homes are less risky for insurance providers, so they knock dollars off our premiums. Not sure how safe your home is? Check out our home security checklist.
• Roofing: This won’t influence my settlement in the event of damage. State Farm has me covered there. But if I use impact-resistant materials like hail-resistant shingles, State Farm may lower my premium.
• Prior claims: State Farm trimmed a chunk off my quote based on my prior claims history. If you’re claims-free, expect to get a discount, too.
• Ting: Ting isn’t technically a discount. It’s a smart sensor that detects faults in household electrical networks, the kinds of malfunctions that lead to fires. If you’ve got a State Farm homeowners policy, a smartphone, and Wi-Fi, you get three years of Ting for free.

State Farm Homeowner Policies Availability by State

State Farm may be the nation’s largest homeowners insurance provider,5 but they don’t write insurance in Rhode Island or Massachusetts. This isn’t random or personal. Until 2008, Massachusetts regulated insurance rates, which kept a number of providers out of the local market. State Farm still hasn’t ventured in.

If you happen to live in either state, it isn’t the end of the world. While we really like State Farm — it’s one of our top home insurance providers of the year — there are plenty of other excellent alternatives.

State Farm Versus the Competition

Where State Farm Hits the Mark

State Farm’s HO-3 policies come with an unusually long list of standard protections. RCV coverage and building ordinance insurance, for instance, aren’t extra endorsements with State Farm. While the monthly rate State Farm quoted me ($109) was a little higher than the local average, once I bundled in my auto insurance, the savings were head-spinning: $461 off my yearly premium.

Where State Farm Falls Short

When I’m exploring a new insurance provider online, I really want to fall in love with their website. State Farm has a good one. It’s well-stocked, easy to navigate, and generally right on target. If there were two things I could change about that experience, though, it would be their clunky quote builder and the lack of information about their identity theft protection service.

Another gripe is that I’d like to be able to purchase a policy on the spot without having to connect with an agent first.

Other Policies Offered by State Farm

State Farm’s Drive Safe & Save™ program calculates my auto premium based on my actual driving behavior.

Auto

State Farm is probably best known for its auto insurance, which offers homeowners who bundle some pretty great perks besides lower premiums, such as their Drive Safe & Save program, where the safer you drive, the less you pay.

Life

State Farm writes term, whole, and universal life policies. Because life policies are longer-term investments that may affect my entire family, if I were shopping for life insurance, my first stop would be State Farm’s life insurance calculator.

Health

State Farm writes individual health policies and supplemental health insurance, which would cover me for unexpected medical expenses like outpatient surgery, copays and coinsurance, and even child care during recovery.

Disability

Disability insurance would help cover major expenses, like my mortgage and car loan, if I can’t work because I’m sick or injured. State Farm offers special discounts for what they call Triangle of Protection bundles: life, disability, and home.

Pet

State Farm partners with pet insurance giant Trupanion. One benefit of working with Trupanion, besides the fact that they’re available 24/7 and would cover 90 percent of my bills, is that they pay my vet bills directly in standard cases so that I can avoid the rigamarole of filing a claim.

Our Final Verdict

Even if you don’t get as much of a kick out of online insurance quotes as I do, seeing your homeowners quote magically drop from $1,131 to $755 right before your eyes is pretty spectacular. Granted, my State Farm quote was basic, but basic for State Farm still includes a lengthy menu of protections you don’t see every day with standard HO-3 policies.

I think State Farm could definitely improve the online quote experience and cut agents out of that process. As a VPN geek, I’d also like to see more specs on their computer network insurance (and their identity theft monitoring service). Other than that, State Farm homeowners insurance is a pretty hard act to follow.

FAQs