Ohio's home insurance market is softening, not collapsing
Ohio's home insurance market is softening, not collapsing
2026-09-15 · Ohio · Compliance
Ohio is not California and it is not Florida. The state's homeowners insurance market swung from record losses to record underwriting profit in three years, carriers are competing again, and the insurer of last resort is telling agents to move customers back to the standard market.1
The Ohio Insurance Agents Association, the state's independent-agent trade body, published its market analysis on July 9, 2026:
“The Ohio Homeowners insurance market has experienced a massive rebound from record high combined loss ratios in 2023 (115%) to record high underwriting (UW) profits in 2025 (74% combined). The 41% drop in loss ratio over a three-year span is one of the largest swings on record.”
On market size and structure: “Ohio's Homeowners insurance market rounded out just under $5.1B in written premium, a 9% increase YOY…The Homeowners market has increased 34% in the past 5 years.”
The number that settles the crisis question
“Surplus lines placement stayed at 0.1% of the market, further showing Ohio's Homeowners market is one where admitted markets write 99.9% of the business.”
Surplus lines placement is the standard tell for a market in flight. When admitted carriers withdraw, business moves to the non-admitted market, and the percentage climbs. In Ohio it has not moved. Admitted carriers write 99.9 percent of the business.
The association's forward view is competitive rather than defensive: “With the 41% swing in UW profitability for Homeowners, we expect to see carriers get more competitive…For example, in May, Nationwide announced it was decreasing Homeowners rates for Ohioans by 18%.”
One thing is not coming back: “While carriers are expected to keep rates flat or possibly reduce rates, we do not expect them to remove the roofing coverage restrictions that have been implemented over the past couple of years.”
Price is not the same as coverage. Our Ohio insurance requirements page covers what a master policy actually has to carry.
The caveat that matters most to a condominium board
Everything above is homeowners personal lines. A condominium master policy is commercial property, and it is a different market.
The HO combined ratio, the surplus-lines figure and the Nationwide rate cut describe the policy an individual owner buys on a house or the HO-6 a unit owner carries. They do not describe what an association pays to insure a twelve-building campus. Those are commercial property placements, rated on construction, occupancy, protection, exposure and loss history, and they move on a different cycle.
There is no authoritative Ohio-specific data on condominium master-policy premiums for 2025 or 2026. Figures do circulate — per-unit annual ranges, “perfect storm” framings for southwest Ohio associations — and they come from insurance-agency marketing pages, are national or promotional, and should not be treated as Ohio market data. Our Ohio insurance requirements page covers what the master policy has to do regardless of price.
What a board can take from this anyway
Do not let a broker price a renewal off a national crisis narrative. If an Ohio association is quoted a steep increase, the reason is in that association's own file — loss history, roof age, deferred maintenance, valuation — not in a statewide capacity shortage, because Ohio does not have one. Ask for the loss runs and the specific underwriting reason. “The market” is not an answer in Ohio in 2026.
Expect the roof question to stay. The trade body is explicit that roofing coverage restrictions are not coming back off even as rates soften. In practice that means actual-cash-value roof schedules, cosmetic-damage exclusions and age-based limitations surviving a soft market. For an association with original roofs, the coverage form matters more than the premium, and a cheaper renewal with an ACV roof schedule can be the worse deal by a wide margin.
Shop, because the carriers want the business. A market at 74 percent combined with 99.9 percent admitted placement is a market where competition is available. Associations that have renewed with the same carrier for a decade on the strength of “nobody else will write this” should test that claim this year.
One stale figure to disregard
A widely syndicated piece reports Farmers seeking a 22.4 percent Ohio home rate increase affecting 115,700 policyholders, and it names the Smart Plan Condominium Program specifically. The underlying rate filings were submitted in June 2024. It is not a 2025 or 2026 development, and it is being recirculated by 2026-dated aggregator pages as though it were current. It is not evidence of present Ohio market stress.
What is genuinely worth watching
Two things, and neither is a rate. The first is the Ohio FAIR Plan adding condominium-association-specific language to its commercial forms effective April 1, 2026 — a dated signal that associations are appearing in the residual market even while the personal-lines market softens. The second is HB 652, the bipartisan bill that would extend non-renewal notice from 30 to 60 days for commercial lines and homeowners policies. A master policy is a commercial-lines policy, and 30 days' notice on one is a board emergency.
Related Ohio HOA Topics
Stay on top of Ohio HOA law
Every week: new Ohio legislation, court rulings, and regulatory developments affecting condos, planned communities, and property managers. Free.
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.