Home insurance costs higher in Colorado. Climate change is a factor.

Colorado is the fourth most expensive state for home insurance — a metric that reflects the risk for extreme weather propelled by climate change, a new analysis shows ,

Why it matters: The cost is just one more barrier to homeownership in Colorado, where property taxes , a hot real estate market and lack of inventory are driving housing prices through the roof.

State of play: Homeowners' insurance premiums have spiked 30% to 130% in recent years, the Denver Post reports , while others are finding their existing policies are being canceled because of elevated risks.

• The increases rank among the nation's highest in part from inflation, as well as elevated costs for building materials and labor, but largely because of major weather events such as wildfires and hailstorms.

What they're saying: "We truly have the hardest market that we've seen in a generation for property insurance," Carole Walker, executive director of the trade organization Rocky Mountain Insurance Information Association, told the Post.

The big picture: The average insurance premium increased 33% from 2020 to 2023, above the rate of inflation, and the costs were disproportionately spread across the nation, a recent New York Times study found .

Zoom in: Homeowners in eastern Colorado and parts of the Midwest pay far more than homeowners with similar risks in other parts of the country.

• In Prowers County along the Kansas border, homeowners paid $4,002 in 2023 for insurance, 102% more than areas with similar high-risk assessments. Morgan County on the Eastern Plains paid 77% more.
• In both, insurance costs for a typical home were higher than average.

The bottom line: Denver homeowners averaged $2,997 for insurance last year, 51% more than other counties in the nation with high risk.

Yes, but: Put in terms of home values, Denver's rates were lower than national averages.