Minnesota lawmakers hear homeowner’s insurance concerns

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — A new legislative task force heard testimony Wednesday about the skyrocketing cost of homeowners insurance in Minnesota.

The Task Force on Homeowners and Commercial Property Insurance was established by the legislature this year and must deliver recommendations by February 2026, ahead of the next regular legislative session. While the group has met twice already, Wednesday marked the first time that stakeholders could testify on the issue. 

According to the Minnesota Realtors Association, the price of insurance on a median home has increased $1,200 since 2019, due to a combination of factors including the frequency of severe weather events and the rising cost of labor and supplies to fix damage. In Minnesota specifically, insurance companies were crushed by historic losses in 2022, when storms caused billions of dollars in damage in May of that year alone.

Theressa Ruiz, a program manager with the homeowner assistance nonprofit known as PRG, works with many first-time homebuyers. She said many families are now seeing “sudden jumps” in premiums and that some insurance companies have pulled out of Hennepin and Ramsey counties.

“First-time homebuyers, already not being able to afford what’s on the market — higher premiums are really hard with affordability,” Ruiz said. “And in order to get them lower, they have really high deductibles.”

The high cost of homeowners insurance has also greatly impacted lower-income families that purchase homes through Habitat for Humanity. 

Habitat for Humanity Minnesota CEO Cristen Incitti said the combination of rising insurance rates and property taxes has threatened the long-term affordability of housing for many families.

“We’re also seeing the loss of insurance — insurance providers maybe no longer covering a certain area or dropping Habitat homeowner clients,” Incitti said. “Then, those clients need to find new insurance and that is often more expensive.”

Incitti called on the legislature to invest in the Strengthen Minnesota Homes grant program, which was established in 2023 to help families purchase fortified roofs to protect against severe weather. Presumably, lessening the cost of storm damage could lead to better market stability and lower insurance premiums. 

However, according to the Department of Commerce’s website, that grant program still has not launched and “we do not yet have an estimate for a program launch date.”

“I think there’s an opportunity there to really invest in that program,” Incitti said. “We have a Habitat affiliate in the Winona County area that has started to implement fortified roofing systems. They’ve done it now on five to six homes, and that Strengthen Homes program is an incentive program to install more fortified roofs across the state. If more of those were installed across the state, that would really reduce the risk for the family and the household in that home.”