The Insurance Shock
Year-over-year inflation in the insurance lines of the Consumer Price Index — motor vehicle insurance and tenants' and household insurance — against all-items inflation. Car insurance became one of the fastest-rising prices in America, peaking above twenty percent a year as repair costs, storm losses, and repriced climate risk fed through premiums, before swinging into outright deflation in 2026. The CPI's household series excludes most homeowners coverage, so the squeeze on homeowners in disaster-prone states is larger than these lines show.
What does it show?
Insurance became one of America's fastest-rising prices: car insurance inflation peaked at 23% a year — several times the overall rate — as repair costs, climate losses, and repriced risk fed through premiums. It has cooled to -4% in the latest month.
Methodology
Year-over-year change in the CPI components for motor vehicle insurance and for tenants' and household insurance, against all-items CPI, monthly, not seasonally adjusted, from the BLS public API. The CPI's household-insurance series excludes most homeowners insurance, which the index treats as part of shelter costs — so these lines understate the full premium squeeze that homeowners in disaster-prone states have experienced.