Report: North Kingstown is Cheapest Town to Insure a House in RI

North Kingstown homeowners pay some of the lowest annual home insurance premiums in the state, according to a recent report by analytics firm Value Penguin.

The average premium for a homeowner in North Kingstown is $915 — 9 percent less than the state average.

The average cost of insuring a home in Rhode Island is $1,005, based on a methodology that used a benchmark property in each city or town. They picked house with a $200,000 reconstruction cost, was 2,000 square feet and had a garage attachment.

The model homeowner, for the purposes of the study, was a 41-year-old single male with no pets. He is also a nonsmoker.

Quotes were obtained from two insurers to come up with the premium averages.

After North Kingstown, Cranston is close behind with a premium of $923, followed by Bristol ($939) and Tiverton ($943).

Narragansett is far and away the most expensive place to insure a home, according to the report. There, a petless, single, nonsmoking 41-year-old man would pay $1,195.

The report has some flaws: it doesn’t seem to consider the proximity of water, which can have a drastic effect on insurance rates. Many homeowners living near the shore are required to obtain additional flood insurance. And most of the 27 towns in the report have waterfront. The report does not indicate if the model homes are near the water or not.

Narragansett, which is only a couple of miles across, is pretty much entirely in a coastal flood zone.

The report also refers to North Kingstown as a city, not a town, and highlights insurance rates in Kingston, which is one of several villages in the town of South Kingstown, which gets its own separate measurement.

The full report can be found here: http://www.valuepenguin.com/best-cheap-homeowners-insurance-rhode-island