Homeowners Insurance in Bradenton, Florida (2024)

Fortunately, homeowners insurance can protect your home from over a dozen possible sources of damage, including hurricanes. A home insurance plan is the best safety net for your home and belongings.

Unfortunately, finding the right policy isn’t always easy or cheap. We created this guide to help you find the best homeowners insurance in Bradenton.

The average cost of homeowners insurance in Bradenton is $3,301 on a $150,000 house, $5,981 on a $300,000 house, and $8,581 on a $450,000 house.

Florida has some of the most costly homeowners insurance rates in the nation, and areas in and around Bradenton have above-average premiums by state standards, meaning you’re paying prices on the higher end of the scale for home insurance in Bradenton.

The table below lists average homeowners insurance costs in Bradenton for homes at three different price levels from some top companies in the area.

Insurance companies typically value your home at its replacement cost, the amount needed to rebuild your home from scratch, considering materials and labor only. Insurers generally don’t look at land value or other market factors, which is why your replacement cost likely differs from your home’s selling price.

The replacement cost serves as a baseline for many areas of coverage in your home insurance plan, which we’ll elaborate on later. As you can see, homes with higher replacement costs generally cost more to insure, as more expensive houses need more insurance.

In addition to replacement cost, home age and wind mitigation are two more factors with notable influence on insurance premiums. Generally, older houses have higher premiums, since their outdated components can more easily lead to property damage. Wear and tear on siding, wiring, plumbing, and more can cause leaks and other failures leading to a claim. 

Also, older homes aren’t built to the latest codes for storm damage resistance, which is highly applicable in Florida, where hurricanes are such a concern. Older houses are more prone to suffer damage from hurricanes and tropical storms.

The threat of high winds is also why wind mitigation is a factor in rates. Insurers reward homeowners who take proactive protective measures against hurricane damage with lower premiums. Wind mitigation measures range from roof attachments and shapes to hurricane-protected openings.

The premiums displayed in this article were obtained by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. They represent the most recent rate filings from the state’s largest insurers and can be utilized as an average of what Floridians can expect to pay for homeowners insurance each year. The example premiums are based on a policy for a Florida masonry home with a $500 non-hurricane deductible, a 2% hurricane deductible and no claims in the past three years.

For a more detailed view of homeowners insurance rates in Bradenton, look at the table below to see the effects of home age and wind mitigation on insurance premiums.

Wind-mitigated and newer homes had similarly low premiums compared to older houses with no protection. The rate difference between older houses with and without wind mitigation was almost 55% – you can cut your premiums in half with wind mitigation.

To highlight these potential savings, take a look at the numbers from the biggest private home insurer in Florida, Universal Property and Casualty. The company had the most costly premiums on homes without wind mitigation, but it also had the largest discount for wind mitigation, making its premiums much more competitive. The table below lists the same numbers for homes worth $300,000.

The final table below depicts the average Bradenton homeowners insurance rate on $450,000 homes.

State Farm had the cheapest homeowners insurance in Bradenton, according to our findings. However, what’s cheapest for you may not be cheapest for another person, as homeowners insurance rates vary due to many factors. You should shop around to find the best deal.

While everyone wants to save money on insurance, remember that the “cheapest” insurance might not be the best option. It’s important to protect your property fully and not cut corners on coverage. Unfortunately, the difficulties of writing home insurance in Florida have caused several companies to withdraw or non-renew policies in the Bradenton area and throughout the state.

If you can’t find a carrier on the private market, you can turn to Citizens Insurance. Citizens is run by the state government of Florida. The company is designed to be an insurer of last resort. Due to recent difficulties in finding affordable coverage in Florida, the firm has become larger than intended.

Citizens is actively trying to offload policies to private insurers, and their policies have smaller limits and less flexibility than traditional plans.

Homeowners insurance policies include default coverage areas, regardless of carrier. These coverages are:

The best home insurance in Bradenton will completely cover your property and belongings at a price you can afford. You may need to alter some aspects of your policy to achieve this. And, you should compare rates from a few companies to ensure you’re getting the best deal.

You choose many of your policy limits when quoting. Your dwelling coverage limit is typically based on the replacement cost of your home, so you don’t have much wiggle room there. But, you can adjust your personal property and liability coverages substantially.

We recommend making a home inventory list to determine the amount of personal property coverage you need. A home inventory values all your belongings and gives you a precise amount of the worth of your things. This number should be your personal property coverage limit, ensuring you fully cover everything you own while not overpaying for unneeded protection.

Most insurers require you to carry at least $100,000 in liability coverage, but they often recommend at least $300,000. Don’t be afraid to raise this higher, especially if you own large dogs or have attractive nuisances on your property, such as trampolines and pools. Liability limits are relatively cheap to raise, and medical costs and legal fees can rack up quickly on even a minor liability claim.

You can also consult your insurer about raising your other structures and loss of use limits if you deem it necessary. But, those limits are typically derived from your replacement cost and don’t need adjusting.

You can also change your deductible to influence your premiums and financial exposure to property damage. A higher deductible can lower your premiums, but it’ll cause you to pay more out of pocket before insurance kicks in for a claim.

A home insurance deductible is the amount of money you must pay toward an insurance claim before the insurance company steps in to pick up the remaining damage costs. Common deductibles range from $500 to $2,000.

Insurers reward policyholders who choose higher deductibles with lower premiums. Since a higher deductible means you’ll pay more out of pocket per claim filed, insurance companies charge you less for premiums, as they’d be on the hook for less money during claims.

Getting quotes from several companies helps you save money by finding the best deal. It also helps you gauge other aspects of the company that you should watch for, such as customer experience when speaking to representatives or Bradenton home insurance agencies.

If quoting online, you can also get a feel for user experience on provider websites and quoting platforms. You may like the service or experience at one company over another, which could influence your final decision.

Bradenton borders water bodies to the north and west. Floods can occur from various causes, and you should know that homeowners insurance doesn’t cover flooding damage in any scenario. 

Heavy rains, mudslides, coastal erosion, king tides, and storm surges from hurricanes can cause floods. Floods are the most common and costly natural disaster in the country. Unfortunately, most home insurance companies in Bradenton can’t afford to cover floods in their policies due to their frequency and varying severity.

You may want to consider Bradenton flood insurance to protect your property fully. Also, some homes in federally designated flood zones may be required to get flood coverage.

Insurance companies manage risk. They charge higher premiums to homes that present greater risks to cover. A home that is riskier to cover is more prone to damage. To determine home risk, carriers look at variables that include:

Your home’s location is crucial in premiums. Homes in hurricane-prone or flood-prone areas may have higher rates due to the greater risk of property damage. Additionally, homes in high-crime neighborhoods could have higher rates due to increased chances of theft or vandalism. Conversely, houses close to fire stations may have reduced premiums as fires have a lesser chance of getting out of hand.

Insurers will note many details about your home’s construction to calculate rates. Masonry homes may have lower premiums than frame homes due to their better ability to withstand fire and wind damage. And, as we explained earlier, larger, more expensive homes to build need more insurance coverage and typically have higher rates than small, simple homes.

Additionally, the details of your policy directly impact your rates. Raising or lowering your deductible changes your premiums. Adding optional coverage, called endorsements, will also increase the average cost of Bradenton home insurance.

While unrelated to your home’s risk, carriers also consider market factors when determining premiums. Sometimes, an insurer needs to raise or lower premiums to survive as a company. For instance, if a provider had to pay out more claims than anticipated last year, they may need to raise rates for all policyholders the following year to recoup some money.

No law requires homeowners insurance in Bradenton. But, mortgage lenders can require homeowners to get and keep a home insurance policy.

When you buy a house with a mortgage, a lender puts down much of the money for your purchase. To protect their investment, lenders typically require you to maintain a home insurance policy on your house as a condition of the loan. This way, they can receive a payout from the insurance company if your house gets destroyed, so their investment isn’t lost.

If you don’t maintain your own coverage, a lender can force-place insurance on you. Stay on top of your payments to avoid this unnecessarily expensive alternative.

There’s quite a bit of information to keep track of when getting homeowners insurance quotes in Bradenton. While you should be able to get quotes on your own, it’s not a bad idea to get help from a home insurance agency in Bradenton, Florida, which is where we’d like to come in.

We’re Clovered, an independent insurance agency headquartered in South Florida. We’re very familiar with the struggles of finding affordable coverage in the state, and we’d be happy to help you with your Bradenton homeowners insurance quotes to get you the best policy.

Use our online quoting tool to compare plans from top providers in your area simultaneously. Or, if you’re a more hands-on person, chat with one of our licensed agents for a quote by calling 833-255-4117 during business hours. You can also email us at [email protected].

Mobile home insurance in Bradenton is largely similar to traditional home insurance. Many of the coverages are the same, although the formal policy is different. Mobile home insurance may also be cheaper.

The most popular type of home insurance is called the HO3 form. This form contains the coverages we described above and is for single-family homes. Mobile home insurance is written with the HO7 form, covering manufactured homes and single, double, and triple-wide mobile homes.

Mobile homes are technically older than manufactured homes. Mobile homes were built in 1976 or earlier before national building guidelines outlined practices for factory-built manufactured homes to follow. 

Insurance on old mobile homes in Bradenton may be pricey as you may encounter issues with construction and building materials. However, insurance on manufactured homes can be cheaper than standard home insurance in many cases, as they’re often smaller. But, it depends on many factors, and you should still shop around for the right policy.