Insurance Costs Have More Than Doubled in the Apartment Sector

Apartment operators are now paying more than double the price of insurance than they were before the COVID-19 pandemic. While most all operational expenses have increased in recent years, the hike in insurance costs has been the most extreme. Back in the days before the initial wave of the pandemic, insurance costs were hovering at about $30 per unit per month, according to data from RealPage Market Analytics. As of November 2023, apartment operators are now paying an average of about $65 per unit per month. That’s an intense increase of 119% during that four-year time frame. Some have attributed the rising cost of insurance to crime or natural disasters fueled by climate change. Among the nation’s largest 50 apartment markets, the metros seeing the biggest increases in insurance costs since 2019 are mostly in Florida (Tampa, Miami, West Palm Beach and Jacksonville) and California (San Jose, San Francisco, Anaheim and Sacramento), where natural disasters have indeed made headlines in recent years. Outside of those states, however, Cleveland and Memphis also ranked as markets with extreme insurance increases in the past four years.