New report highlights how climate events, inflation and geographic volatility are reshaping home insurance loss trends

LexisNexis Risk Solutions has released the 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report, delivering updated analysis of by-peril claims trends in the U.S. home insurance industry to support more informed carrier decisions. The report examines loss cost, claims frequency and severity while providing insights on seasonality changes, catastrophic claims and geographic patterns by state.

Key Takeaways from the 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report

All Peril severity hit an all-time high in 2025, rising 25.9 percent from 2024 and 93.2 percent compared to 2019. Although All Peril loss cost fell 4.4 percent and frequency dropped 23.8 percent from 2024 to 2025, loss cost stayed the third highest in seven years and 50.0 percent above 2019 levels.
The U.S. saw 23 climate disasters each causing $1 billion or more in damages during 2025, for a total of $115 billion and marking the third highest year for billion-dollar climate events on record. The Los Angeles wildfires represented more than half of that total at $61.2 billion, showing how one major event can reshape loss trends.
Fire and Lightning stood out as the defining perils of 2025, with loss cost up 76.8 percent and severity climbing 67.3 percent year over year, driven largely by the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires.

"U.S. home insurers continue to face increasing pressure and uncertainty as they contend with a perfect storm of rising severity, inflation-driven replacement costs and shifting loss patterns amid changing climate-driven catastrophes," said George Hosfield, vice president and general manager of home insurance at LexisNexis Risk Solutions. "The data reinforces the need for insurers to use multi-source datasets and analytics to assess risk more accurately, benchmark performance and adapt to these volatile market conditions."

All Peril Trends

The U.S. home insurance industry maintained a long-term upward trend in loss cost across all perils combined. Although All Peril loss cost declined in 2025, it remained the third most expensive year for loss cost in the last seven years.
Severity increased sharply, reaching its highest level in seven years and rising 93.2 percent compared to 2019. The rise in severity offset lower claim frequency, which continued its general downward trend since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Access the full 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report to explore how state-level loss cost and seasonality shifts are contributing to market volatility, including why California recorded the highest loss cost in 2025 and how wind and hail activity affected several central U.S. states.

Fire and Lightning Perils

Fire and Lightning defined 2025, with loss cost increasing 76.8 percent, frequency rising 6.0 percent and severity climbing 67.3 percent year over year from 2024. The sharp increase stemmed largely from the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, including the Palisades and Eaton fires.
The fires cost an estimated $61.2 billion, making them the highest-cost climate disaster in the U.S. in 2025 and the costliest recorded wildfire in U.S. history.
Access the full 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report to review how the timing of the Los Angeles fires affected Fire and Lightning loss patterns, including a shift in the peril typical seasonality.

Wind and Hail Perils

Wind loss cost decreased 50.4 percent and severity fell 12.0 percent from 2024 to 2025, while frequency dropped 43.9 percent. The year-over-year decreases likely reflected the lower number of catastrophe Wind claims in 2025.
Despite lower Wind loss costs overall, wind-related risk stayed significant. A central tornado outbreak in mid-March ranked as the second costliest billion-dollar weather event of the year at an estimated $11 billion.
Hail loss cost decreased 38.4 percent in 2025 from its seven-year high in 2023, and frequency fell 35.4 percent from 2023. Severity remained flat compared to 2024.
Access the full 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report for additional context on catastrophe claims, billion-dollar hail events and the states most affected by severe convective weather across the central U.S.

Non-Weather-Related Perils

Non-Weather-Related Water loss cost decreased 6.4 percent and frequency fell 7.8 percent from 2024 to 2025, while severity rose 2.5 percent.
Severity for the peril increased 63.16 percent between 2019 and 2025, likely due to inflation and rising material and labor costs tied to water damage remediation.
Liability loss cost decreased 4.0 percent and frequency dropped 14.6 percent from 2024 to 2025, while severity increased 12.8 percent year over year. The report notes this may reflect social inflation, describing how liability claims costs rise above general economic inflation due to increasing litigation costs.
Access the full 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report for additional findings on Theft and Other Perils, including how declining frequency and rising severity are contributing to shifting loss trends across non-weather-related claims.

"Broader loss trends are important, but they are only the starting point," continued Hosfield. "The real opportunity for carriers is using those trends to better understand what to look for at the individual-property level. If wildfire risk is expanding into new areas, carriers with insight into the fortification and condition of specific homes can support more informed assessment decisions. If a state is seeing distinct water-loss patterns, understanding the interior risk characteristics of the properties they insure can be key. By connecting national, state and peril-level trends with more granular property intelligence, carriers can make more informed underwriting, pricing and portfolio decisions."

Access the full 2026 LexisNexis U.S. Home Trends Report.

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About LexisNexis Risk Solutions
LexisNexis Risk Solutions leverages the power of data, advanced analytics platforms and integrated AI solutions to provide insights that help businesses across multiple industries and governmental entities reduce risk and improve decisions to benefit people around the globe. Headquartered in metro Atlanta, Georgia, the company maintains offices throughout the world and forms part of RELX, a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.

Media Contact:
Syed Shabbir
Director, Communications
Insurance and Healthcare
LexisNexis Risk Solutions
816-572-7709

SOURCE LexisNexis Risk Solutions