The Best (And Cheapest) Georgia Home Insurance Companies

No single home insurance company is the best fit for all Georgia homeowners, but our choices for the best insurance companies in the state are Country Financial, Nationwide and State Farm, based on customer feedback. We've also made picks for the best home insurance companies for Georgia customers with specific types of coverage needs.

If you're shopping based on affordability, we dug into the data on Georgia home insurance pricing. Based on our research, the average cost of homeowners insurance in Georgia is $1,522 per year.

We collected insurance quotes across 14 counties in the state to determine which regions have the highest and lowest annual home insurance costs. Across the 14 counties we studied, Hanover Insurance averaged the lowest annual rates in the state. Read more about our findings below, or use our quote tool above to find the best home insurance quotes in your area.

Best Homeowners Insurance Companies in Georgia

When searching for the best home insurance company in Georgia, it doesn't matter if you live in Atlanta or Columbus; you should look for a policy that fits your needs for coverage features, price, stability and customer service. Here, we've focused on customer service and compiled a list of the largest homeowners insurance companies in the Peach State, ranking their quality through customer complaints.

By that standard, the top-rated homeowners insurance companies in Georgia are Country Financial, Nationwide and State Farm. The worst insurance companies in Georgia, measured by customer complaints, are Allstate, Travelers and Farmers. However, Georgia's biggest insurers appear to have satisfied customers in general. All 10 companies received a customer complaint ratio below the national median of 1.0, and most earned a rating far below that number.

In the following section, we provide our home insurance company recommendations for specific types of shoppers.

Georgia Homeowners Insurance Companies Reviews

We took a look at some of the largest homeowners insurance companies in Georgia, based on market share, and provided recommendations for the type of customers who would be best served by their policies. Of the top insurers in the state, State Farm, Allstate, USAA and Liberty Mutual stand out for a variety of reasons cited below. Additionally, all of these insurers receive an A.M. Best Financial Strength Rating of A+ or A++, indicating they are in excellent financial condition and will have no problem paying your claims.

State Farm and Liberty Mutual: Best for Unique Coverages

If you're looking for a unique type of coverage, State Farm and Liberty Mutual may be the place to start your search. In Georgia, State Farm offers coverages for parts of your home you won't see with most other insurers, such as service line coverage—including underground piping and electrical lines—and home systems coverage, which covers things like personal electrical generators.

Liberty Mutual, on the other hand, alters its standard coverage features to provide unique benefits. For example, coverage limits for your dwelling and personal property coverage have inflation protection, meaning the limits will rise in line with the pace of rising prices and ensure your insurance protection is consistent over time.

Allstate: Best for Customers Qualifying for Discounts

Allstate has some of the cheapest base home insurance rates in the state, but what really makes it competitive is the variety of discount options that can help to lower your premium even more.

The type of discounts on offer—such as savings for bundling auto and home insurance or for having a claim-free history—are not unique, but the size of the discounts is unmatched. Bundling insurance policies with Allstate could save you up to 30% on your premium, while a claim-free history could save you up to 20%; other insurers may offer as little as 10% to 15% for eligible customers.

USAA: Best for Military Members, Veterans and Their Families

For those who are eligible for membership—U.S. military members, veterans and their families—the United Services Automobile Association (USAA) is an ideal choice for home insurance coverage. Not only does USAA offer prices below Georgia's average, but its policies have some of the broadest coverage of all home insurance companies in the state. A base USAA policy includes replacement cost coverage for personal belongings and identity theft coverage up to $5,000—both of which generally cost extra with other insurers. USAA also has an outstanding customer service reputation, as shown by its stellar customer complaint ratio.

Georgia Underwriting Association FAIR Policies: An Alternative for High-Risk Homeowners

Insurance companies do not have an obligation to cover any individual homes, and homeowners who are considered more risky—due to factors such as location or claims history—may not be able to find coverage. Georgia homeowners who cannot obtain coverage from major insurance companies should look to the Georgia Underwriting Association (GUA) and its Fair Access to Insurance Requirements Plan (FAIR).

GUA acts as a residual insurance market, providing coverage for higher-risk homeowners. FAIR plans tend to have narrower coverage than those provided by the major insurance companies in Georgia, but they are a valuable resource for homeowners without another option.

Cheapest Home Insurance Companies in Georgia

We gathered quotes from State Farm, Travelers, Hanover and Grange. Quotes from each company were averaged to find which insurance companies had the best home insurance rates in Georgia. The table below shows the average annual costs to insure our sample home by company and the state average:

Home Insurance Companies in Georgia: Average Quotes

Least Expensive Homeowners Insurance in Georgia: By County

The table below shows the five best places for home insurance of all the counties in our rankings. The counties are listed in order of mean price starting with the lowest average home insurance quote and ascending. Cobb County is the cheapest county in Georgia for homeowners insurance based on our study. Landlocked counties, like Bibb County, which is home to the city of Macon, performed well relative to the state average.

Georgia's cheapest counties for home insurance quotes

Most Expensive Homeowners Insurance in Georgia: By County

The table below shows the five most expensive places of all 14 counties in our study. The counties are listed in order of price starting with the highest average rate and descending. The most expensive county for homeowners insurance was Randolph County.

Georgia's most expensive counties for home insurance quotes

What Affects the Cost of Home Insurance in Georgia?

A variety of factors can affect your home insurance rates. These factors can be divided into two categories: adjustable and fixed.

Adjustable factors are selected by you, and the price of your home insurance policy will change greatly depending on the limits you select. However, you should always be sure to select dwelling coverage limits high enough to cover the replacement cost of your home.

Fixed factors are the characteristics of you or your home that cannot be easily changed. For example, Georgians with newer homes with roofs made of impact-resistant materials will likely pay less for their home insurance because they're less likely to make a claim. If you're a Georgia resident with a claims-free history, insurers may reward you with a cheaper premium. Location also matters: If you live in an area of Georgia at higher risk for certain weather events or crime, your premium may be higher than elsewhere, all else equal.

What Does Georgia Homeowners Insurance Cover?

Like in all states, homeowners insurance policies in Georgia include at least the four main coverages: dwelling, personal property, personal liability and additional living expenses.

Dwelling coverage provides financial reimbursement if the structure of your home itself is damaged by a covered peril. The dwelling refers to everything from the walls and floors to attached structures, such as a garage. You should buy a policy with enough dwelling coverage—in other words, high enough limits—to completely rebuild your home in the event of a total loss.

Personal property coverage means your insurer will pay you back for damage to or theft of things you keep within the structure of your home. This could be anything from your clothes to your television. Personal property coverage limits are usually offered as a percentage of your dwelling coverage limits, though many insurers also allow you to adjust these limits to fit your needs.

Personal liability coverage protects you if a lawsuit is brought against you for bodily injury or property damages. Coverage includes the cost of these damages and the cost of providing a legal defense up to policy limits, which typically start at $100,000.

Additional living expenses (ALE) coverage will reimburse you for expenses that are above and beyond your normal living expenses if your home becomes uninhabitable in a covered event. So if your home in the suburbs of Atlanta is decimated by smoke damage, this coverage will pay for expenses such as hotel costs and additional transportation costs. It is also called loss of use coverage.

Do Georgia Homeowners Need Flood Insurance?

Flood damage is almost never covered under homeowners insurance policies. Georgia homeowners who want to cover their home and personal property from flooding will have to purchase a separate flood insurance policy. The average cost of flood insurance in Georgia is $684 per year.

Purchasing flood insurance will only be required if either:

Georgia homeowners, or those looking to buy a home, can research their flood zone by entering their address into the FEMA Flood Map Service Center. Lenders may require homeowners in high-risk zones to buy a policy, but even if there isn't a requirement, we highly recommend you purchase flood insurance if you're in an area at elevated risk for flooding.

If you live in a lower-risk flood zone, and your lender doesn't require you hold flood insurance, you won't have to purchase it. In fact, very few Georgia homeowners are covered against flood damage. Georgia has approximately 86,000 flood insurance policies in force against 2.3 million owner-occupied housing units. In other words, less than 4% of the state's homeowners have a flood insurance policy. Conversely, about 98% of them have a home insurance policy.

Purchasing flood insurance for extra security is still recommended for those living in lower-risk flood zones. More than 20% of flood insurance claims come from properties in moderate- to low-risk zones, so homeowners in low-risk areas can still be vulnerable. And homeowners in moderate- to low-risk zones may qualify for a Preferred Risk Policy, which is a cheaper policy that can be purchased for $108 per year at its lowest coverage levels.

Do You Have to Have Homeowners Insurance in Georgia?

There is no legal requirement in Georgia or any other state to hold a homeowners insurance policy. But if, like most people, you take out a mortgage to finance your home purchase, your lender will almost certainly require purchasing a homeowners insurance policy as a condition of the loan. So for most people, homeowners insurance is required.

If you're a Georgia homeowner and paid for your home in cash upfront—or have paid off your mortgage—you won't be required to have a homeowners insurance policy. However, we still recommend having a policy as vital financial protection against the risk your home is damaged or destroyed by events such as fires or windstorms. A home is most likely your most valuable asset, and without a home insurance policy to reimburse you for a damaging event, you're putting that wealth at risk.

Methodology

For average cost, we studied 14 counties, spread out geographically in the state of Georgia. The quotes in our study were for a $200,000 home insurance policy with a $1,000 deductible. We’ve displayed all counties with the average annual cost of insurance for the benchmark property and how much each city costs relative to the statewide average.

We measured customer satisfaction by a complaint ratio collected from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. Customer complaints are weighted by market share, so the number of complaints is adjusted relative to the size of a company, with a median score of 1.0.

A lower complaint index indicates that customers are more likely to be happy with their service. Only the top 10 insurance groups in Georgia by market share were included in this analysis. When multiple companies within a parent group were rated, the complaint index was taken from the largest individual underwriter active in Georgia.

Sources:

Georgia Office of Insurance and Safety Fire Commissioner