The Scoot Inn
Why Is Homeowners Insurance So Expensive?
RECEIVED Fri., Aug. 28, 2009
Dear Editor,
Why does homeowners insurance cost so much? Fire is the leading cause of major damage/destruction to homes. Yet, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, the fire departments around the country responded to only about 415,000 fires in 2006. And you have to think most of those were minor ones. OK, there are about 112 million households in the country. So, according to my limited math skills, that means that any one household has a little less than four-tenths of 1% chance of having to call the fire department. I mean, I have never even seen a house on fire. Yet, I give insurance companies a couple of thousand dollars a year to "protect" my home investment. Call me a gambling man, but I think I'd rather keep the money and go with the 99.63% chance I won't have a fire.
Why does homeowners insurance cost so much? Fire is the leading cause of major damage/destruction to homes. Yet, according to the Department of Health and Human Services, the fire departments around the country responded to only about 415,000 fires in 2006. And you have to think most of those were minor ones. OK, there are about 112 million households in the country. So, according to my limited math skills, that means that any one household has a little less than four-tenths of 1% chance of having to call the fire department. I mean, I have never even seen a house on fire. Yet, I give insurance companies a couple of thousand dollars a year to "protect" my home investment. Call me a gambling man, but I think I'd rather keep the money and go with the 99.63% chance I won't have a fire.
Steven McCloud