Insurance Commissioner Jim Donelon announced on Friday his approval of overall base rate decreases of 3.5% for homeowners’ policies issued by State Farm Insurance Company, which follows his approval of an additional decrease of 2.3% for State Farm auto policies in March.
According to a release from the Louisiana Department of Insurance, State Farm provides homeowners’ coverage to more than a quarter of a million policyholders in Louisiana.
The statewide homeowners’ market in Louisiana has seen only a 1% increase in each of the past six years, the release states, and this rate experience is a direct result of Louisiana adding 31 new insurers writing homeowners’ coverage in the state.
“In uncertain times like these, good news is hard to come by and I wanted to share a bit of good news for State Farm’s policyholders," said Donelon in a statement. "These decreases are directly attributable to competition in our marketplace and again demonstrate that competition remains the preeminent safeguard for policyholders. In Louisiana, State Farm auto insurance reductions over the past 18 months have led to other major insurers lowering rates in the private passenger market and I believe this decrease will produce a similar result in the homeowners’ market.”
According to the department, State Farm’s current 2.3% auto insurance reduction follows approved decreases of 4.5% in 2018 and 6.5% in 2019, for a total of 13.3% over the past 18 months. State Farm provides auto insurance for more than a million Louisiana policyholders, the department says.
The effective dates of State Farm Mutual ’s reductions are May 1, 2020 for auto policies and July 1, 2020 for homeowners’ policies.