The Highest And Lowest Car Insurance Rates In America
The Highest And Lowest Car Insurance Rates In America
Insuring a car can be expensive, especially if you live in a highly populated, high-crime city, or your driving record is spotty. Prices are often lower in sleepy towns where they still have video stores and barber poles, but we can't all live in charming villages.
Using Carinsurance.com's "Nosy Neighbor" tool, we looked up the highest and lowest insurance rates in every state and came up with the most, and least, expensive places in America to insure your car. For people plotting a move, perhaps for retirement, who want to lower their bills, click through to see some of our surprising finds.
1. Detroit, Mich.,: $4,599/a year
Ironically, the Motor City's auto insurance rates are so high residents often register their cars to addresses outside of the city just to save money. Another 19-percent of Detroiters just forego insurance all together, a dicey move in the only state with both no-fault insurance and guaranteed unlimited lifetime personal injury benefits for those injured in a car crash. Detroiters also pay much higher rates due to the out-of-control crime rates and the expense of medical treatment for poorer residents without health insurance.3. New Orleans, La., $3,530/a year
With a very high rate of natural-disaster damage, the Crescent City earns the third spot on our most expensive list. According to the Insurance Research Council, Louisiana has the highest rate of bodily injury claims in the US. New Orleans also has had crime problems in the years following Hurricane Katrina.5. Miami, Fla., $2,632/a year
Insurance rates in the Sunshine State are the fifth highest in the nation, but maybe should be higher given the way Miamians drive. The city is number one in auto fatalities and pedestrian strikes. Insurance claims are also higher due to the astonishing thirty-five hit-and-runs committed in Miami-Dade County each day. Yup. Every day. Slate.com recently named Miami as having the worst drivers in America.2. Falmouth, Maine., $730/a year
A town with three private golf courses and a yacht club sounds more like a gated community than a town. But this charming costal zip code has over 11,000 residents and just two auto thefts last year. Falmouth is also the setting of many of Stephen Kings' early novels, though rates would surely be higher if there was a "Christine"-type car rolling around town.4. Franklin, Iowa: $772/a year
With a population of only 143 at the last census, Franklin is just as small and sleepy as Allison TX, except Franklin is the fourth cheapest place to insure a car. Iowa beats Texas by a country mile.