How Much Is Homeowners Insurance on a $400,000 House?

With a budget of around $400,000, you’re square in the middle of the market across the U.S. — the median home sale price in 2025 is just over $410,000 according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

And, while you’re looking for the perfect home, you should also be considering homeowners insurance. After all, you’ll need it to get a mortgage.

But the price you pay isn’t typically a factor for deciding how much homeowners insurance you need, ultimately influencing the cost of your homeowners insurance policy.

“The purchase price of your home is only a small part of the story,” Beth Swanson, an insurance analyst at insurance marketplace The Zebra, told CNBC Select by email. “You’re also paying for the neighborhood, school district, and views, none of which need to be rebuilt after a loss.”  

Instead, focus on how much it would cost to rebuild today, which will vary from house to house and from place to place.

Here’s how much you can expect to spend on coverage for a $400,000 house, and how to make homeowners insurance as affordable as possible.

Data from Insurify found that the typical cost of homeowners insurance for a $400,000 house is $3,216 in 2025.

However, prices look very different depending on your home state and location. While the average annual cost for homeowners insurance on a $400,000 house is $1,488 in New Hampshire, it can cost over $7,300 per year in Florida. Here are the average costs of homeowners insurance coverage across the U.S according to online insurance marketplace Insurify.

But your state isn’t the only factor — your coverage limits and personal information will also influence the end price you’ll pay for coverage.

Also, decide if you want actual cash value coverage (ACV) or replacement cost coverage (RCV). ACV policies pay for items considering how much they’ve depreciated, while RCV coverage doesn’t account for depreciation. RCV coverage could be useful for those who have many items that depreciate quickly, like electronics. However, RCV is more expensive than ACV.

Liability coverage

If you or someone in your household is sued for unintentional damages, your homeowners insurance could help you cover legal costs and court awards. This can cover a variety of situations, from a guest slipping in your driveway to a libel accusation.

Getting enough liability insurance to cover the net worth of your assets might make sense — after all, this coverage is meant to protect those assets from having to be used to compensate someone else if you’re sued.

However, some people need more liability coverage than others. Those who work with children, have teen drivers, have a home with a swimming pool or trampoline, or frequently host others might want to up their coverage.

Most policies have at least $100,000 of coverage, but some have more. If you want liability coverage up to $1 million or more, you may want to look into an umbrella insurance policy, which sits on top of the liability limits of your underlying home and auto insurance coverage and covers above that to a limit you choose.

Consider separate policies for flooding and earthquakes

If you live in an area that’s prone to flooding or earthquakes, you may need more protection than just a standard homeowners insurance policy. Floods and earthquakes are excluded from typical homeowners insurance, so you’d need to buy separate policies to cover these events.

Flood insurance is typically bought from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). However, the limits can be low on this — it only offers dwelling coverage up to $250,000 and contents coverage for up to $100,000.

Depending on rebuilding costs in your area, that may not be enough to cover the home you purchased for $400,000. Private flood insurance companies can cover higher limits and offer more coverage for features like a swimming pool or basement.

Earthquake insurance can cover damage due to ground movement. However, prices vary widely by state and location.

• Your credit score: In many states, insurers use your credit score as a basis for your insurance score. An August 2025 study from the Consumer Federation of America found that a person with a credit score of 630 or below would pay $2,000 more each year for homeowners insurance than someone with a high credit score of 820 or above.
• Your deductible: Your deductible is the amount you would need to contribute if you need to file a claim. The higher your deductible, the lower your cost.
• Your home’s age and construction materials: Older homes or those in disrepair are typically more expensive to insure. “Insurers may use drive-by inspections or satellite imagery to spot risks such as overgrown trees or missing shingles. Well-maintained homes generally cost less to insure because they are considered lower risk,” Swanson says.
• Claims history: “Filing frequent claims, even small ones, can lead to higher premiums or non-renewal,” Swanson says.

Whether you’re buying a home for $400,000 or $1 million, there are several steps you can take to save on homeowners insurance.

Here are CNBC Select’s top tips to save:

• Shop around: If you can take an hour or two to get quotes from three or four companies with the same limits and deductibles, you can compare them and look for the cheapest.
• Raise your credit score: Since credit scores can be a factor in your premium cost, raise your credit score by checking your report for errors and paying bills on time.
• Bump your deductible: Increasing your deductible lowers your cost. However, you’d need to be able to afford this amount if you needed to file a claim, so don’t raise your deductible to a higher amount than you could reasonably afford.
• Look for discounts: Homeowners insurance companies all offer different discounts, and you might find some that apply to you more than others. Check the list of discounts to decide if it’s worth getting a quote.

At CNBC Select, we work with experts who possess specialized knowledge and authority, gained through relevant training and experience. For this story, we interviewed Beth Swanson, an insurance analyst at The Zebra, an insurance shopping and comparison site. Swanson is a licensed property and casualty insurance agent and has been quoted by The New York Times, WSJ Buy Side and Business Insider.

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