Where To Expect The Highest Auto Insurance Rates In The Nation
Average housing costs, job opportunities, school scores, and population are often determining elements in planning our personal and financial future. Expecting larger cities to be more expensive, have higher taxes, and more crime, all seem rational. As these elements pertain to auto insurance, the dense population almost guarantees higher rates as presumably more cars equal more claims. Thinking life in a big city like New York or Los Angeles could do more than damage to your bumper navigating among the droves of commuters, further solidifies the suspicion of higher insurance premiums. Before you turn down the big city job offer, you might want to know California and New York are not among the top 3 most expensive states in 2010 to insure your vehicle.
Recent studies awarded Louisiana as the number 1 most expensive state to insure a vehicle. Michigan and Oklahoma rank in at numbers two and three. Surprisingly, Montana comes in at number 4, just a bit higher on average than California (New York ranked number 23). Following California’s lead and 5th on the national list, is South Dakota. According to 2009 population polls, the most populated states were California, Texas, New York, Florida, and Illinois. (Louisiana being the nation’s 25th most populated state and Montana, number 45, with less than 100,000 people.) How is it that Montana, with a population of 974,989, could have average auto insurance rates higher than California with a population of 36,961,664?
While the average auto insurance per state yields some interesting and unfavorable results for the less populated states; perhaps looking more specifically at major cities will reveal a more expected report. In a study conducted in 2009, Detroit, MI ranked at the top of the list as the most expensive city to insure a vehicle. Second in line was Philadelphia, PA followed by Newark, NJ. Los Angeles, CA upped its state position from number 5 and traded it for a top city position at number 4. Last in place was Hempstead, NY. Population seems to have some impact; however, it appears not to be the sole contributing factor in which insurance companies base their premiums.
Rumored effects as to why some states on average cost more range from annual car theft to accidents where layers become involved and weather conditions all the way down to statements proposing densely populated with bad drivers.’ While these may or may not be the real reason, surely rational deduction calls for the theory that more populated areas have the potential to have higher premiums. Yet conditions specific to each city and state ultimately determine the overall cost of auto insurance rates. Conducting some online research can help people find affordable rates in any city.
