Extreme weather events are driving up both global food prices and home insurance rates as more frequent catastrophic climate events increase the risk of loss.
Homeowners in Ontario are increasingly faced with steep price hikes without any transparency from insurers regarding these price adjustments, The Pointer reported.
What's happening?
As Ontario homeowners are beginning to renew their insurance policies for the next year, many are receiving steep price hikes, causing homeowners to do a double-take at what's changed.
According to The Pointer, many have reported a price increase of more than $100 per month for homeowner insurance rates, despite no changes to their insurance coverage or claims history.
Data from Insurance Business Magazine found that homeowners in Ontario are paying on average $519 more for homeowner insurance rates in 2025 compared to 2015. Homeowner insurance rates in the province have jumped 87% in the last decade, per The Pointer.
Northern Ontario homeowners also face a disparity of between 30% to 80% higher costs compared to homeowners in southern Ontario, according to The Pointer.
While homeowners understand that climate-induced property damages have caused insurance rates to become more expensive for homeowners across the province, many also recognize that their "premiums are just going up with no end in sight," said Kiera Taylor, senior policy analyst with the Investors for Paris Compliance, per The Pointer.
Insurers simply present a premium increase without communicating the risks that homeowners face to justify these price increases. This leaves homeowners in the dark about why they're paying more for the same, or less, coverage, and what precautions homeowners should seek to protect their property.
"Some areas are becoming uninsurable," Taylor said, per The Pointer. "People are paying more for less protection, and they're not even told what risks they face because flood and fire maps used by insurers, used to price risks, are proprietary."
Why are inflated insurance premiums important?
Rising global temperatures, exacerbated by pollution from burning dirty fuels, are causing extreme weather events, such as flooding and hurricanes, to become more frequent, severe, and prolonged. This can devastate properties, and insurers are taking notice.
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No way 😨 Inflated insurance premiums, due to the higher risk of property damage or loss, are not necessarily accessible for all homeowners; people aren't magically making more to accommodate rising grocery and electricity prices, and they are now seeing increased insurance premiums.
For some, these price adjustments may mean reining in spending to budget for these price hikes. However, homeowners who cannot afford to pay an additional $100 per month, or $1,200 or more per year, may be forced to go without coverage, risking property damage or loss with no safety net.
What's being done about inflated insurance premiums?
Hiked insurance premiums affect homeowners across the board. Fortunately, policyholders can still shop around to find the best rates and coverage to fit their property needs.
Some states, like California, have rolled out new insurance models to ensure vulnerable and high-risk populations still have access to necessary insurance.
California insurance commissioner Ricardo Lara, for example, has finalized the state's Sustainable Insurance Strategy, which requires insurers to accept high-risk properties in exchange for the allowance of forward-looking catastrophe models.
In the private sector, some companies, like Kettle, are leveraging modern technology to more accurately predict catastrophic events to influence insurance pricing.
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