State Farm has maintained its dominance in the US homeowners insurance space, holding firm on its position as the leading market share holder in the third quarter despite grappling with its highest loss ratio in almost six years.
According to analysis by S&P Global Market Intelligence, State Farm saw a 9.6% year-over-year surge in direct written premiums to $7.52 billion during the period. This allowed it to secure an 18% market share, besting the country’s other top insurers.
Trailing behind State Farm is Allstate, which secured a 9% market share. USAA and Liberty Mutual claimed the third and fourth positions, each commanding approximately 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% in the previous year. The surge in losses had been attributed to the Maui wildfires in Hawaii, with State Farm reaching its highest loss ratio for any three-month period since the fourth quarter of 2017.
American Family Insurance emerged with the second-highest loss ratio in the analysis at 96.8%, registering an increase of 39.7 percentage points from the previous year’s 57.1%. Other insurers with notable increases include Nationwide, Travelers, and Liberty Mutual, with loss ratios rising to 86.4%, 80.2%, and 76.7%, respectively.
Meanwhile, Citizens, Florida’s insurer of last resort, saw its loss ratio drop dramatically to 46.0% from 478.3% in the third quarter of 2022 when it incurred $2.6 billion in catastrophe losses from Hurricane Ian.
Overall, S&P Global found that the industry’s homeowners loss ratio had a year-over-year decline to 80.3% from 103.7%. This was accompanied by an increase in direct written premiums to $41.83 billion from $36.86 billion a year ago.
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