Yes, on average, and the gap is wide: Insurance.com’s 2026 rate study puts the average annual homeowners premium at $3,799 in North Carolina against $8,471 in Florida, on the same sample house and the same coverage. But the statewide average is not your quote, and the part of North Carolina you are moving to is the part where rates are rising fastest.
We hear this question most from buyers leaving Tampa, Sarasota, Cape Coral and the Space Coast, and it is usually the deciding question rather than a curiosity. They have watched a homeowners bill double in four years and they want to know whether the Carolina coast is different or just earlier in the same story.
The honest version has three parts. The state average really is much lower here. The coastal corner of North Carolina you are buying in is the exception to that average. And nobody, including us, can tell you your Wilmington premium without a quote on your specific address, roof age and deductible.
Why the state averages are the wrong number for a Wilmington address
Insurance.com published its 2026 state averages on September 21, 2026, from rates collected in summer 2026, for an HO-3 policy on a 2,000 square foot frame house built in 1997 with $300,000 of dwelling coverage, a $1,000 deductible and a 2 percent hurricane deductible where applicable. On that basis North Carolina averaged $3,799 a year, down 6.3 percent from 2025, and Florida averaged $8,471, up 6.8 percent. The national average was $2,872.
Those figures are quoted rates on one sample house, not what any real family paid, and a statewide average blends Boone with Carolina Beach. North Carolina is a state where the mountains, the Piedmont and the barrier islands buy very different products at very different prices. Wrightsville Beach is not Raleigh, and the average sits closer to Raleigh because that is where the houses are.
So use the gap as direction rather than as a budget. A buyer leaving Fort Myers for Leland will almost certainly pay less for homeowners insurance. A buyer leaving Ocala for an oceanfront house at Kure Beach may not.
- Average annual homeowners premium, 2026: North Carolina $3,799, Florida $8,471, national $2,872 Insurance.com 2026 state rate study, published September 21, 2026, rates collected summer 2026
- Year over year change in that study: North Carolina down 6.3 percent, Florida up 6.8 percent Insurance.com, September 21, 2026
- North Carolina statewide average base rate increase: 7.5 percent on June 1, 2025 and 7.5 percent on June 1, 2026 N.C. Department of Insurance settlement, January 17, 2025
- What the Rate Bureau originally asked for: an average 42.2 percent statewide, with proposed increases up to 99.4 percent in some areas N.C. Department of Insurance, January 17, 2025
- Beach Plan residential building coverage cap: $1,000,000 North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association, read October 7, 2026
- Median single-family NFIP flood policy inside the City of Wilmington: $879 outside the mapped hazard area, $1,371 in Zone A or AE FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP policy data, policies effective on or after September 1, 2025, retrieved October 15, 2026
What is actually changing in North Carolina
In January 2024 the North Carolina Rate Bureau, which files rates on behalf of insurers, asked for an average 42.2 percent statewide increase with proposed increases of up to 99.4 percent in some areas. Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey did not grant it. The Department of Insurance announced a settlement on January 17, 2025 that raised the average statewide base rate 7.5 percent on June 1, 2025 and another 7.5 percent on June 1, 2026, capped the increase at 35 percent in any one territory, and barred the Rate Bureau from filing for another increase before June 1, 2027.
Read that last date carefully, because it is the useful part for anyone buying in the next eighteen months. Base rates are not scheduled to move again until the middle of 2027, and the territory cap limits how much any one stretch of coast can absorb at once. That is a far better position than Florida homeowners were in through 2023 and 2024, and it is a real argument for the Carolina coast.
It is not a promise. A settlement caps base rates, not the rate your particular carrier will offer you, and carriers also move by non-renewing, tightening roof-age rules and raising wind deductibles. Two of those three do not show up in any average premium table.
The Beach Plan is the part that surprises people
North Carolina has a residual market, the same way Florida has Citizens Property Insurance. State law at G.S. 58-45-5 defines the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association’s Beach Area as the part of the state south and east of the inland waterway, which puts Wrightsville Beach, Carolina Beach, Kure Beach, Oak Island, Ocean Isle Beach and the Topsail island towns inside it and most of Wilmington, Leland and Hampstead outside it. Inside that line, the association’s Coastal Property Insurance Pool is the market of last resort, and its residential building coverage stops at $1,000,000. G.S. 58-45-45 also requires it to offer a named storm wind and hail deductible of at least 1 percent of insured value, which on a $900,000 house is a $9,000 deductible before you see a dollar.
The contrast with Florida is worth knowing. Citizens has been shrinking: it reported 293,772 policies in force as of May 31, 2026, against a peak of roughly 1.4 million in September 2023, as private carriers assumed policies through the state’s depopulation program. Florida is actively reshaping its market. North Carolina is earlier in its own cycle. We would not bet that the gap you see today is the gap in 2030.
Our guide to coastal homeowners insurance works through the deductible math at 1, 2 and 5 percent of Coverage A, which is the number that decides what a storm actually costs you.
Flood is a separate bill, and it is federal in both states
This is where Florida buyers are usually ahead of everyone else: you already know that flood is not in your homeowners policy. It is a separate policy, written through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood carrier, and FEMA prices it the same way in Pender County as in Pinellas County.
What changes is the map. Inside the City of Wilmington, the median single-family NFIP policy runs $879 a year outside the mapped hazard area and $1,371 in Zone A or AE, from FEMA’s own policy data for policies effective on or after September 1, 2025, retrieved October 15, 2026. Those are modest numbers next to a Florida coastal flood bill, and plenty of Wilmington addresses are in Zone X and carry no requirement at all. Our flood zone and flood insurance guide explains which zones require coverage and which do not.
Put the two bills next to your mortgage before you decide what you can afford. Our New Hanover County market update puts the county median sale price at $464,000 for the three months ending September 2026, and the 30-year fixed rate was 7.40 percent in Freddie Mac’s survey for the week ending October 15, 2026. Insurance and flood together are the line that decides whether that payment works, and they are the line most relocating buyers estimate last.
We cannot give you an average Wilmington premium, and we will not invent one. No North Carolina public source publishes an average homeowners premium for Wilmington or for New Hanover County, and the online estimators that claim to disagree with each other wildly for the same address. That is why every number above is either a statewide study with a stated methodology or a regulatory fact, and why the only figure that matters to you is a written quote on the specific house. There is also a Florida-side caveat: if you are leaving inland Florida rather than the coast, your current premium may already be close to what the Carolina coast will quote you, and the move will not save you money on insurance. Get quotes on two or three candidate addresses during due diligence, in dollars, with the wind deductible spelled out, before you decide which house to buy.
Related questions people also ask
Why is coastal North Carolina homeowners insurance rising faster than the rest of the state?
Because the risk and the rebuilding cost are concentrated there. When the North Carolina Rate Bureau filed for higher rates in January 2024 it sought increases of up to 99.4 percent in some areas while asking for an average 42.2 percent statewide, which tells you where insurers believe the exposure sits. The Department of Insurance settlement announced on January 17, 2025 capped any single territory at 35 percent, so the coast still absorbs more than the Piedmont, just far less than was requested.
Does my homeowners policy cover flood damage in Wilmington?
No. Flood is excluded from a standard homeowners policy everywhere in the United States, and you buy it separately through FEMA’s National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood carrier. If your lender’s flood determination puts the house in a Special Flood Hazard Area and your loan is federally backed, that coverage is required rather than optional. If the house is in Zone X it is not required, and we still recommend pricing it.
What is the North Carolina Beach Plan, and would I be in it?
The Beach Plan is the North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association’s Coastal Property Insurance Pool, the market of last resort for wind and hail coverage. State law at G.S. 58-45-5 defines its Beach Area as the part of North Carolina south and east of the inland waterway, so a house on Wrightsville Beach or Oak Island sits inside it while most of Wilmington and Leland do not. You would only end up there if the standard market declines your address, and the pool caps residential building coverage at $1,000,000, which matters on the higher-priced island houses.
Pick two or three specific addresses you would actually buy, in different places: one in town, one across the bridge in Leland or Hampstead, one at the beach. Then get written homeowners and flood quotes on each before you fall for a particular house, with the named storm deductible stated in dollars rather than as a percentage. If you would like us to line those quotes up next to the taxes and the payment so you can see the whole monthly number, bring us the three addresses and we will work through them with you.
Sources: Insurance.com 2026 state home insurance rate study, published September 21, 2026, rates collected summer 2026. N.C. Department of Insurance, “Commissioner Causey negotiates settlement on Rate Bureau’s homeowners’ insurance request,” January 17, 2025. N.C. General Statutes 58-45-5 and 58-45-45. North Carolina Insurance Underwriting Association, Coastal Property Insurance Pool coverage limits, read October 7, 2026. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, policies in force as of May 31, 2026, and Florida Trend reporting on Citizens depopulation. FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP policy data, policies effective on or after September 1, 2025, retrieved October 15, 2026. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey, week ending October 15, 2026. Our New Hanover County market update, three months ending September 2026.
