State Farm has maintained its dominance in the US homeowners insurance market, maintaining its position as the leading market share holder in the third quarter despite facing its highest loss ratio in nearly six years.
According to analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence, State Farm’s direct written premiums rose 9.6% year over year to $7.52 billion in the period. This gave it an 18% market share, outpacing the other top insurers in the country.
State Farm was followed by Allstate, which secured a 9% market share. USAA and Liberty Mutual ranked third and fourth, each with about 7% of the market, with premiums of $3.02 billion and $2.94 billion, respectively.
Other insurers in the top 10 include Farmers Insurance (6% market share), Travelers (5%), American Family Insurance (5%), Nationwide (3%), Chubb (2%) and Citizens Property Insurance Corporation (2%).
Despite State Farm’s lead, the insurance giant still reported the highest loss ratio in S&P Global’s analysis at 99.4%, up from 73.4% a year earlier. The spike in losses was attributed to the Maui wildfires in Hawaii, with State Farm reporting its highest loss ratio for a three-month period since the fourth quarter of 2017.
American Family Insurance had the second-highest loss ratio in the analysis at 96.8%, up 39.7 percentage points from 57.1% a year earlier. Other insurers with notable increases include Nationwide, Travelers and Liberty Mutual, whose loss ratios rose to 86.4%, 80.2% and 76.7% respectively.
Meanwhile, Citizens, Florida’s insurer of last resort, saw its loss ratio fall sharply to 46.0% from 478.3% in the third quarter of 2022, when it suffered $2.6 billion in catastrophe losses from Hurricane Ian.
Overall, S&P Global found that the industry’s homeowners loss ratio fell from 103.7% to 80.3% year-on-year. This was accompanied by an increase in direct written premiums to $41.83 billion from $36.86 billion a year ago.
