8 Best Homeowners Insurance Companies in Nebraska of 2023

Homeowners insurance is an essential investment for anyone looking to safeguard their property and belongings in Nebraska. With the state's susceptibility to severe weather conditions such as powerful storms, high winds, hurricanes, flooding, and hail, obtaining comprehensive coverage is crucial for homeowners in the Cornhusker State. This form of insurance not only protects the structural integrity of your home but also the contents within, shielding you from financial hardship in the event of unforeseen damages.

In Nebraska, homeowners need to strike a balance between affordability and adequate coverage. While it's essential to prioritize insurance costs, your primary consideration should be whether a policy offers the right coverage options tailored to your specific needs. Once you've determined this, cost comparisons can be made with greater ease.

Selecting the most suitable homeowners insurance provider in Nebraska can be a challenging task, as numerous companies offer coverage within the state. To simplify your decision-making process, we've compiled a list of the top homeowners insurance companies, categorized and ranked to provide a comprehensive overview of the available options. Explore our guide to ensure you make an informed choice and secure the protection your home deserves.

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The Best Homeowners Insurance companies in Nebraska

• Allstate: Best for the Lowest Rates
• Liberty Mutual: Best Homeowners Insurance with the Most Discounts
• State Farm: Best Homeowners Insurance for Unique Coverages
• Amica: Best Homeowners Insurance for Flood Insurance
• Travelers: Best Homeowners Insurance for Protecting Valuables
• Farmers: Best Homeowners Insurance for Earthquake Coverage
• GEICO: Best Homeowners Insurance for Fast Quote and Claims Processing
• Progressive: Best Homeowners Insurance for Single Deductible

Allstate: Best for the Lowest Rates

Allstate is highly rated due to its favorable customer service and many additional coverages to make your policy more comprehensive.

Of all the homeowners insurance companies that made our list, Allstate

stood out for being known to offer some of the lowest rates.

The average cost of Allstate home insurance is $130 per month or $1,560 per year.

Allstate blows the competition away. The insurer is cheaper than State Farm, Amica Mutual, and Farmers, all of which are also generally known to offer some of the lowest rates in the industry.

Read a full Allstate homeowners insurance review.

Liberty Mutual: Best Homeowners Insurance with the Most Discounts

Besides Nationwide, Liberty Mutual homeowners insurance offers the most discounts than any other insurer in the U.S.

Taken together, you may just get a rate that is lower than comparable insurance companies.

Read a full Liberty Mutual home insurance review.

State Farm: Best Homeowners Insurance for Unique Coverages

With State Farm, one of the largest insurance companies in the nation, you can customize your standard homeowners insurance policy by purchasing additional coverage.

Many insurers offer additional coverages, but with State Farm, you get the most unique ones that other insurers don’t have.

Read a full State Farm homeowners insurance review.

Amica: Best Homeowners Insurance for Flood Insurance

No matter what state you are in, homeowners insurance never covers flooding due to a hurricane or severe storms.

The only time your insurer will pay for water damage that destroys your personal property is if water backs up through your drain or sewer, or if there is an overflow from a sump pump.

A flood insurance policy is the only way to get covered for flood damage to your home.

You can get basic flood insurance through the NFIP.

However, Amica Mutual offers flood insurance for greater protection and extensive coverage than what’s offered by the NFIP.

For example, the flood policy covers the full value of your home and belongings and covers items stored in your home’s basement.

Homeowners must have a flood policy if they live in high-risk areas.

Travelers Insurance: Best Homeowners Insurance for Protecting Valuables

Your standard or basic homeowners insurance policy will cover your personal belongings if they are stolen or destroyed in a covered peril.

But home insurance pays only up to the policy’s limit, which means some of your most expensive items that exceed that cap will not be covered at all or in full.

Travelers has the best coverage for your valuables. For an additional cost, the insurer can provide higher limits and expanded protection for expensive property such as jewelry and artwork.

And if you need even more coverage or higher amounts of coverage for specific valuable items, the insurer offers a separate policy called personal articles floater.

In addition, the insurer can schedule a valuable item by putting it on a separate policy and scheduling it for its full value.

Farmers: Best Homeowners Insurance for Earthquake Coverage

Like natural flooding, a standard homeowners insurance policy never covers earthquakes.

If you live on a fault-line, or if your area is susceptible to earthquakes, it falls on you to purchase earthquake insurance at an additional cost.

Farmers offers one of the best earthquake insurances around. There are plenty of features that come with the policy.

It can cover structural repairs or the rebuilding of your home. It pays for temporary housing and is designed to replace personal property that is damaged or destroyed by an earthquake.

The insurer’s agent will start by reviewing your current coverage to help you determine whether your home is protected the way you want and tell you how much it would cost to add earthquake coverage to your policy.

The cost of earthquake insurance coverage depends on your area’s level of risk but in general, it is very expensive.

Read a full Farmers homeowners insurance review.

GEICO: Best Homeowners Insurance for Fast Quote and Claims Processing

Getting a homeowners insurance quote with GEICO is very easy. You go online and enter your personal info and home address, and GEICO will autofill details about your home. There are some questions GEICO will ask you, but GEICO can generate a quote for you within a matter of minutes.

Not that many insurers can be that fast.

And processing a claim is also speedy.

No matter what insurance company you choose, the size and nature of your claim can dictate your claims processing time. But in general, for claims that are not seismic in nature, GEICO states that it can process claims in as little as 48 hours.

Progressive: Best Homeowners Insurance for Single Deductible

Progressive homeowners insurance is known for its long list of discounts that can lower your premium in a major way.

The company also offers flexibility when you bundle. In most home policies, you are given one option: bundle home with auto to get a discount. But with Progressive, you can bundle home with a motorcycle or a home with RV, and you’ll still save.

But what stands out is the company’s unique single deductible,

which is not offered by many insurers.

Here’s how the single deductible works. Say you have auto insurance from Progressive and decide to purchase its homeowners insurance. If both your car and home are damaged in the same incident, one deductible payment covers both claims.

That offers savings for you on top of the savings you can get from the insurer’s discounts.

Our Methodology on How We Picked the Best Home Insurance in Nebraska

We looked at several factors to determine the best companies that provided homeowners insurance. These are:

Discounts

We narrowed down our focus to those companies that had the most discounts. Discounts can lower your premium and allow customers to get the lowest possible rate.

Coverage

We looked at homeowners insurance policies based on how much coverage they offered.

A range of coverages is important for a company to have because it can customize a policy or tailor it to a customer’s need. Certain types of coverage can also offset policy limits so that you will be reimbursed in full when you make a claim.

Technology

If a company’s website and mobile app allow you to manage most of your insurance needs electronically or if both are easy to use and intuitive so anyone can use them, then that’s a company we considered.

Customer Reviews

We looked at many insurance review sites that offered vetted customer reviews to narrow our options. The ones with the most positive reviews were more favorable to us.

Price

Homeowners insurance shouldn’t break the bank. Pricing needs to be fair and competitive, and a company should also have enough discounts to make a policy affordable to most people.

If the insurance company had a rate below the national average or below the state average, we put that company on our list.

What is Homeowners Insurance?

Homeowners insurance protects your home—and the contents within—from the financial impact of unforeseen or unexpected disasters.

The insurance will pay to have your home repaired or rebuilt after damage from theft, vandalism, or fire. It will also cover you from natural disasters such as heavy winds and hurricanes.

And if your belongings are stolen or destroyed, homeowners insurance will replace them.

Is It Mandatory to Buy Homeowners Insurance in Nebraska?

You aren’t required to buy homeowners insurance, and it’s not mandatory by law in Nebraska.

But most homeowners have a home mortgage; in that case, your lender will likely require a policy to protect its investment.

The lender will want coverage equal to at least the value of your loan.

What Does a Basic Homeowners Insurance Cover in Nebraska?

Dwelling

This covers damage to your house. So, if your home is destroyed due to a fire or other covered event or peril, your insurer will cover the cost to rebuild your home.

Medical Payments

Pays if someone is injured on your property and needs medical treatment, regardless of who’s at fault. Also pays if you, a family member, or a pet like a dog injures someone elsewhere.

Personal Liability

This pays for medical bills, repair, or replacement costs if you are held responsible for physically hurting someone or damaging his or her personal belongings. Personal liability also handles legal fees if that person sues you.

Other Structures

It Covers outdoor stand-alone structures like fences, sheds, and detached garages on your property.

Personal Property

Covers the cash value to replace your personal belongings if your house was robbed or burned down. Covered personal property often includes furniture, clothing, electronics, everyday items like kitchenware, and high-cost valuables like jewelry.

Loss of Use

If a covered event destroys your property to the point that it is unhabitable, loss of use will pay for your temporary living expenses, including hotel stays, meals at restaurants, groceries, toiletries, and more.

Examples Based on Standard Coverage

Now let’s see these standard coverages in action:

• If a windstorm damages your roof, your dwelling coverage will pay to repair it.
• If your home is burglarized, your personal property coverage will pay to replace stolen or damaged items.
• If a fire burns down your detached garage, your other structures coverage will pay to rebuild it.
• If a guest slips on your kitchen floor and breaks her hip, medical payments coverage will provide some coverage for her medical bills.

If you don’t have homeowners insurance, all these coverages will have to be paid out-of-pocket.

Many homeowners don’t have that kind of money to replace their belongings or rebuild their houses.

That’s why, for homeowners in Nebraska, home insurance is a must.

Adding on a home policy can be expensive in Nebraska, but if you consider everything your standard policy covers, you’ll see that the price is negligent.

What is a Covered Peril?

A covered peril is an event your insurer agrees to reimburse you after you file a claim.

Covered perils include:

• Fire, wildfire, and smoke damage.
• Weather conditions like lightning, hurricanes, windstorms, hail, and the weight of ice, snow, or sleet.
• Explosions.
• Theft, vandalism, and malicious mischief.
• Damage from an aircraft or a car, or another type of vehicle.
• Water damage unrelated to natural floods.

What Isn’t Covered in a Basic Homeowners Insurance Policy?

No matter what the company, homeowner insurance never covers floods and earthquakes.

What Natural Disasters Occur Frequently in the Cornhusker State?

Nebraska suffers from tornadoes, severe storms, and floods.

Tornadoes 

Nebraska is located in Tornado Alley and experiences an average of 45 twisters yearly.

Luckily, homeowners don’t need extra coverage for tornadoes. That’s because insurers classify tornadoes as windstorms, and windstorms are covered by most homeowners insurance policies.

Severe Storms

This is Nebraska’s main natural disaster. Severe storms include thunderstorms, dust storms, heavy rain, hail, and high winds. Nebraska homeowners are also covered for severe storms.

Floods

Floods are a common disaster in Nebraska.
Floods occur in Nebraska due to the many types of storms that hit the state.

Floods are also a risk because Nebraska contains roughly 79,056 miles of rivers.

But floods aren’t covered by a homeowners policy.

The only time an insurer will pay for property damage due to flooding is if water backs up through drains or sewers or if there is an overflow from a sump pump.

But your insurer won't cover flood damage if water comes into your home due to natural flooding from a hurricane or storm.

Since Nebraska is susceptible to flooding, it’s a good idea to purchase a separate flood insurance plan on top of your basic or standard homeowners insurance policy.

What Factors Determine Your Homeowners Insurance Rate?

Homeowners insurance rates can vary based on several factors.

Location

Crime rates, local building costs, and natural disasters that occur in your zip code can all influence your premium. But if you live near a fire department, a police station, or a fire hydrant, your rate will drop.

Replacement Cost

Replacement cost is the dollar amount needed to rebuild your home with similar building materials and features in the event of a covered loss. Insurance underwriters look at your home’s square footage, layout, and style to set your premium.

The Age of Your Home

Older homes are costlier and more difficult to replace as they often feature different building materials and have dated electrical wiring and plumbing, and appliances that have mechanical breakdowns.

Roof

Roof damage can be costly to repair and often leads to interior home damage. When you get a quote from an insurer, the company will typically ask about your roof’s age and building materials.

Claims History

If you’ve filed a recent claim with your insurer, your rate will go up. And you can’t hide. An insurer will know of your past claims with a different insurer and use that information to increase your premium. However, homeowners with a claims-free record over the last several years will usually get lower rates as they are considered in the eyes of the insurer to be less likely to file a claim in the future.

Credit Score

Having a poor credit score will raise your rates. It indicates to an insurer that you are more likely to file a home insurance claim.

Meanwhile, those with good to great credit scores often pay less.

Policy Structure

Your deductible, coverage limits, and endorsements will all factor into the cost of your home insurance coverage. 

Renovations

Home renovations like kitchens and baths that change the value of your home or increase your dwelling coverage needs can alter your costs.

Security

If your home is secure and safe after installing smoke and burglar alarms, interior sprinklers, and home monitoring systems like surveillance cameras, to name a few, all these can lower your rate.

How Much Coverage Should You Buy?

The best way to determine how much coverage you need is to do a home inventory.

Taking a home inventory of your possessions and their value can help you not only to choose the coverage you want, but it can also help you to speed up the claims process and verify losses if needed for tax purposes.

Make the List

You should walk around your home, going room to room and making a list of everything you own. This will include furniture, electronics, appliances, and other items.

Be Inclusive

Many homeowners forget to record everyday items, but these are also worth coverage. Things like clothing, bed sheets, linens, towels, dishware, athletic equipment, and even things in your garage like your lawn mower or leaf blower should be included in your recording.

Assess the Value of Your Belongings

After you tally up your items, you should then estimate the value of each by using receipts or finding similar or identical items online.

Do the Documentation

For your items, take pictures or videos of every item you’ve listed or keep documentation or record of your belongings by using some sort of spreadsheet.

While your insurer won’t need the inventory or the photographs when you take out the policy, your documentation will be indispensable if you ever need to file a claim because you will be better able to prove the value of your possessions.

By doing a home inventory, many will be surprised by how quickly things can add up.

That’s why a home inventory is so important.

You arrive at the sum of how much insurance you would require if you had to replace everything after a fire or flood.

So, if you need to buy extra coverage, you’ll only pay for what you need.

You should never underestimate the importance of a home inventory.

When you shop for homeowners insurance, the quotes you get are based in part on the amount of personal property you have.

Will My Homeowners Insurance Pay for My Diamond Ring?

A basic homeowners policy might cover items like jewelry and fine art but only up to a fixed amount.

But if you file a claim, it isn’t likely to cover the full value of a $10,000 diamond ring or a $7,000 painting.

You need to increase coverage limits to get your diamond ring's full value if it’s stolen or destroyed.

To make sure your diamond ring or expensive painting is insured to its full value, you should schedule it.

Scheduling is designed for valuable items. Scheduled personal property means you’ll list the item for its full value. So, if you schedule your diamond ring, it will be removed from your personal property limits and it will be insured separately.

How Can I Lower My Homeowners Insurance Premium?

The three most popular ways to lower your premium include:

Shopping Around

Get quotes from multiple insurers using a company’s website.

Make sure you compare quotes from different insurers for the same coverage, such as the cost of all your personal possessions derived from a home inventory. Eventually, you’ll hit the jackpot and find an insurer that meets your budget.

Keep in mind that different insurance companies apply varying factors to come up with your premium. This can result in you getting very different rates for the same coverage from multiple companies.

Getting Discounts

If you are looking to reduce the cost of a policy, you should ask your insurer for any discounts that may apply to you. Discounts are things offered by an insurance company that will lower your premium.

Making Your Home Safe

If you install security features in your home, such as home security systems, surveillance cameras, fire, smoke, and burglar alarms, as well as deadbolts, you’ll get a lower rate because then your home will be less susceptible to a break-in or a fire.

How Much is Homeowners Insurance in Nebraska?

The national average annual premium for homeowners insurance is $106 per month or $1,272 per year, according to the Insurance Information Institute.

Meanwhile, the average cost of homeowners insurance in Nebraska is $235 per month or $2,820 per year.

This is more than double the national average premium.

Home insurance in Nebraska is high because of the state’s numerous severe weather risks, such as hurricanes and heavy storms, tornadoes, and flooding.