Vacation Home Insurance: Coverage, Costs, and How It Works

Whether you own a secondary home to enjoy on vacation or rent out for extra cash, it’s a good idea to consider your insurance needs. Vacation home insurance is a little different than primary home insurance since insurers view these properties as higher risk.

Here’s what you need to know about how primary and second home insurance policies differ, what vacation insurance covers, and how to find affordable coverage.

What is vacation home insurance?

Vacation home insurance is a specialized homeowners policy for secondary or seasonal residences. Just as you need adequate insurance to protect your primary residence, you need a separate policy to protect your vacation property.

A vacation home is a secondary residence that you might use on the weekends or while on vacation — or you may rent it out for revenue. Vacation homes are often in a different location from your main residence — beaches, mountains, lakes, or ski areas, for example — providing a nice change of scenery.

While the same types of insurance are available for both properties, you’ll generally pay more to insure your second home.^[1] Since you aren’t always at your vacation home, it has a higher risk of vandalism, theft, and undetected maintenance issues.

Most vacation insurance policies have more stringent requirements, such as requiring you to occupy the home for part of the year or having special coverage if you rent out your secondary home.

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What vacation home insurance covers

A secondary home insurance policy typically provides the following coverage:

• 

  Dwelling coverage

  Dwelling coverage protects the physical structure of the home and can also cover permanently attached structures, such as a deck or garage.

• 

  Other structures coverage

  Other structures insurance covers structures that aren’t attached to your home, such as a shed or fence.

• 

  Personal property coverage

  Also known as contents insurance, personal property coverage pays to replace your personal belongings following theft or damage in a covered event. Personal property coverage limits are often lower for a vacation home than for a primary residence.

• 

  Personal liability protection

  If someone incurs an injury on your property or if you damage someone else’s property, personal liability protection can pay for the loss or injury.

• 

  Additional living expenses coverage

  A vacation home policy offers limited coverage if your secondary home becomes uninhabitable after a covered loss.

What vacation home insurance doesn’t cover

When insuring your second property, it’s important to understand what your policy doesn’t cover so you don’t have unpleasant surprises. Vacation home insurance policies often have more exclusions than policies for primary homes.

Here are some things this insurance typically won’t cover:

• Wear and tear: Like your primary homeowners insurance policy, your vacation home insurance won’t cover wear and tear, such as frozen pipes due to a lack of maintenance. Insurers may deny claims if a secondary home is unoccupied and not properly winterized or monitored.

• Maintenance issues: If you fail to properly maintain your home, such as not repairing a leaky roof or pipe, your insurance won’t cover the damage.

• Natural disasters: If your vacation home is in an area prone to floods, winds, or earthquakes, you might want to consider additional insurance. For instance, if an earthquake damages your beach house in California, your insurance won’t pay for damages unless you have additional earthquake insurance.^[2]

• Long-term vacancy: If the home has been vacant beyond a certain period of time, vacation home insurance likely won’t cover damage that occurs outside of the vacancy window.

• Damage from renters: Unless you have a landlord insurance policy, vacation home insurance won’t cover any damage caused by renters staying in your home.

• Business use: If you use your home for business activities, you’ll need a separate endorsement.

Best vacation home insurance companies

Not all insurance companies offer policies for second homes. To help you focus on the companies that do provide vacation insurance, consider some of the best companies offering secondary insurance below.

Insurance Company	IQ Score The Insurify Quality (IQ) Score uses more than 15 criteria to objectively rate insurance companies on a one-to-ten scale. The Insurify editorial team researches insurer data to determine the final scores.	Best For
Farmers	8.4	Customization
Progressive	8.2	Ease of buying
Liberty Mutual	8	Bundling
Hippo	6.8	High-tech protection
American Family	8.6	Temporary rental coverage
The Hartford	6.2	Snowbirds

• How Insurify rates insurance companies

  Our editorial team spent more than 350 hours developing the Insurify Quality (IQ) Score and scoring insurance companies. The IQ Score objectively analyzes and calculates a score for insurers using more than 15 crucial criteria. The team weighted criteria by importance to the consumer — factors such as customer reviews and affordability influence the score more than availability and third-party ratings.

  We rate each company on a 1 to 10 scale based on five categories: financial ratings, customer satisfaction, affordability, customer support and transparency, and availability. Insurify updates ratings once a year or as more recent information becomes available.

  • Third-party financial ratings: Insurify uses data from AM Best, S&P, Moody’s, and more to compare insurance companies’ credit and ability to pay out future claims.
  • Customer satisfaction: To calculate this score, Insurify analyzed more than 55,000 customer reviews across 155 car insurance companies. We also consider third-party ratings from J.D. Power, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and Trustpilot.
  • Affordability: Our data scientists analyzed more than 90 million real-time auto insurance rates from our partners across the U.S., as well as available discounts, to calculate an affordability score.
  • Customer support and transparency: This measures coverage options, ease of claims filing, and the insurer's transparency surrounding discounts, coverages, and claims process.
  • Availability and reach: Insurify scores availability and reach by identifying the number of states in which insurers offer coverage and company size by market share.

Farmers: Best for customization

Progressive: Best for ease of buying

Liberty Mutual: Best for bundling

Hippo: Best for high-tech protection

American Family: Best for temporary rental coverage

The Hartford: Best for snowbirds

Vacation insurance vs. homeowners insurance

Insurance for a secondary property can have different terms than a policy for your primary residence. How you use your vacation property and how often you reside there can affect the type of coverage you need.

Insurance companies often write coverage for secondary residences on a “named perils” basis. This means your insurer will only cover losses due to the perils outlined in your policy. You won’t have coverage for any unnamed perils.^[3]

Insurance for your primary residence typically covers all perils except the ones your policy explicitly excludes. When selecting coverage for your vacation home, carefully consider the location and any specific risks that you want to cover.

The following table highlights some of the different risk factors for primary and vacation properties.

	Vacation Insurance	Homeowners Insurance
Average annual premium	$2,693	$2,580
Vacancy allowance	30–60 days	30–60 days
Risk factors	More frequent vacancy, burglary, vandalism, amenities that increase liability risk	Distance from a fire station, neighborhood crime rates, poor home maintenance
Rental eligibility	Yes	Yes
Coverage limits	Varies	Varies

Cost of vacation home insurance

The average national cost for $300,000 in dwelling insurance for a secondary home is $2,693 per year, compared to $2,580 for primary home insurance. Vacation home insurance typically costs 10% to 15% more than insurance for a primary residence.

The annual cost of vacation home insurance varies greatly between states due to factors like location and exposure to natural disasters. Insuring a vacation home in Vermont costs an average of $1,040, while the average cost in Florida is $12,458.

Florida is prone to a range of disasters, including severe storms, cyclones, drought, and flooding, which increases the risk to home insurers and the cost to homeowners. Though Vermont also experiences weather disasters, the frequency and associated costs aren’t as high.

Compare average annual costs for secondary home policies with $300,000 in dwelling coverage by state.

State	Average Annual Cost
Alaska	$1,265
Alabama	$4,462
Arkansas	$3,816
Arizona	$2,222
California	$2,019
Colorado	$4,614
Connecticut	$1,999
Delaware	$1,368
Florida	$12,458
Georgia	$2,749
Hawaii	$1,304
Iowa	$2,402
Idaho	$1,854
Illinois	$2,323
Indiana	$2,115
Kansas	$3,894
Kentucky	$2,805
Louisiana	$7,199
Massachusetts	$2,111
Maryland	$1,892
Maine	$1,498
Michigan	$2,085
Minnesota	$2,643
Missouri	$3,066
Mississippi	$4,886
Montana	$2,014
North Carolina	$2,390
North Dakota	$2,854
Nebraska	$4,489
New Hampshire	$1,388
New Jersey	$1,436
New Mexico	$3,810
Nevada	$1,386
New York	$2,558
Ohio	$1,520
Oklahoma	$6,168
Oregon	$1,396
Pennsylvania	$1,480
Rhode Island	$2,307
South Carolina	$3,491
South Dakota	$2,903
Tennessee	$2,798
Texas	$5,048
Utah	$1,552
Virginia	$1,813
Vermont	$1,040
Washington	$1,628
Washington, D.C.	$1,363
Wisconsin	$1,656
West Virginia	$1,577

Why vacation home insurance is more expensive

Vacation home insurance is more expensive because these properties are often located in areas that are prone to more severe weather events, such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods.

You’ll also pay more for a second home policy because vacation homes often sit vacant for extended periods of time. This increases the risk of theft, fire, or vandalism, so insurance companies charge higher rates to offset the risk of insuring a vacation property.

Factors that affect vacation home insurance costs

Insurance companies use many factors to determine the cost of a standard home insurance policy, including your home’s age, building materials, if you have a security system or sprinkler system, and your claims history.

When determining premiums for a second home, your insurer will consider the following variables:

• Weather and natural disaster risk: Vacation homes are often in higher-risk areas, such as beaches or forests. When calculating your insurance premiums, insurers will consider the type of natural disasters your vacation home is vulnerable to.

• Distance from fire services: Homes located closer to a fire department may have lower costs, since this decreases the risk of a fire completely destroying the home.

• Extra amenities: Added amenities like a hot tub or pool can increase your home’s risk and insurance rates.

• Property value: How much your property is worth also influences the cost of home insurance. If you own a high-value vacation property, you’ll pay more for insurance coverage.

• Vacancy: If your vacation property is unoccupied for a period of time, this can increase the risk of break-ins and vandalism. Vacant properties can also lead to undetected issues, such as a leaky or burst pipe. If you aren’t checking in on a regular basis, this can cause major damage.

• Renters: Having renters in your vacation home is likely to increase the cost of insurance, as insurers view it as another risk. You may need to purchase additional coverage.

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Other insurance policies to consider for a vacation home 

To provide the proper protection for your vacation home, you may consider some of the following insurance policies in addition to standard homeowners coverage:

• Flood insurance: Flooding is the most common natural disaster in the U.S., and standard homeowners insurance policies don’t cover it. If you have a vacation home in an area prone to flooding, consider purchasing a separate flood insurance policy through a private insurer or from the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP).

• Earthquake insurance: A standard home insurance policy generally won’t cover damage from an earthquake. Some policies will cover damage from a fire following an earthquake and expenses to live elsewhere if your home is uninhabitable. If your vacation home is in an area prone to earthquakes, many private insurers offer separate policies or endorsements.

• Wind and hurricane deductibles: In high-risk hurricane areas, homeowners insurance policies come with percentage deductibles for damages from windstorms or hurricanes. Deductibles typically depend on a percentage of the home’s value. For example, if a house has $300,000 in dwelling insurance and a 5% hurricane deductible, you’ll pay the first $15,000 before insurance kicks in.

• Umbrella insurance: Your standard homeowners coverage provides liability insurance up to your policy’s limit. An umbrella policy provides additional liability coverage that kicks in once you’ve hit your standard policy limit.

• Landlord insurance: If you plan to rent out your vacation home for short periods of time, you may need to add an endorsement to your existing policy. For longer-term rentals, you may need to purchase landlord or rental dwelling insurance.

Vacation home insurance FAQs