Hurricane-Ready Home Coverage
Home Insurance in Louisiana
Homeowners insurance in Louisiana carries more risk — and costs more — than almost anywhere else in the country. The Root Agency stayed through the 2016 floods, Hurricane Ida, and everything since, writing home coverage through Allstate, a carrier that kept writing Louisiana home policies when others stopped.
A Louisiana homeowners policy covers your dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, and liability — but it never covers flood, and it carries a separate hurricane deductible set as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, commonly 2% to 5%. Louisiana's median premium for mortgaged homes runs about $2,140 a year, second-highest in the nation, so the goal is the right coverage at a fair price with every discount applied. Get a free home insurance review from The Root Agency and we'll walk you through both deductibles in plain dollars before you sign.
- Median Louisiana premium for mortgaged homes: about $2,140 a year, second only to Florida (U.S. Census Bureau).
- Flood is excluded from every standard homeowners policy — it is always a separate policy.
- Your hurricane deductible is a percentage of dwelling coverage, commonly 2% to 5%, not a flat amount.
- A FORTIFIED roof earns a state-required discount plus a Fortify Homes grant of up to $10,000.
The Root Agency provides home insurance across Louisiana — licensed statewide from our Baton Rouge office.
The Louisiana premium
Why home insurance costs more in Louisiana
Louisiana is one of the most expensive states in the nation to insure a home, and the reason is geography meeting weather. Insurers price Louisiana homes for hurricane exposure most states never face, and repeated major losses along the coast and through the Baton Rouge corridor keep rebuild costs — and premiums — high.
It's a hard market, not a broken one. Rising premiums reflect real catastrophe risk and reinsurance costs, not a single carrier gouging homeowners.
The numbers are near the top nationally: Louisiana's median home-insurance premium for households with a mortgage runs about $2,140 a year — second-highest in the country, behind only Florida (U.S. Census Bureau). That's not your agent's markup; it's the cost of insuring homes in the path of Gulf storms.
The honest goal isn't a magic cheap policy — in this state that usually means a coverage gap you'll regret. It's the right coverage at a fair price, with every discount applied.
What it covers — and what it doesn't
Inside a Louisiana homeowners policy
A Louisiana homeowners policy bundles several protections into one contract. Think of it in two groupings, plus one critical exclusion.
Your property — the home and what's in it
Dwelling — the structure itself: roof, walls, foundation, and built-in systems, covered against wind, hail, fire, and other named perils. Other structures — detached garages, fences, sheds, and similar structures on your lot. Personal property — your belongings inside the home: furniture, clothing, electronics, and appliances. Loss of use — extra living expenses if a covered loss forces you out while your home is repaired.
Your liability — your finances, not your building
Personal liability — if someone is injured on your property or you're responsible for damage to others, this helps cover legal and settlement costs. Medical payments— smaller, no-fault coverage for a guest's injury on your property.
A standard homeowners policy does not cover flood. Not from a hurricane, not from a rising river, not from the 2016-style rainfall that swamped homes nowhere near a mapped flood zone. Flood is a separate policy, every time. In a state this wet, that gap is the most expensive thing many homeowners don't know they have — which is why we walk every client through their flood insurance options alongside their home policy, not as an afterthought.
Not sure whether your policy leaves a flood-sized gap?
The number to know before a storm
The Louisiana hurricane deductible, explained
Here's the part of a Louisiana policy that surprises people at claim time: your policy has more than one deductible. For most everyday claims, you have a standard deductible — a flat dollar amount, say $1,000. But damage from a hurricane or named storm triggers a separate hurricane / named-storm deductible, and it works differently: it's a percentage of your dwelling coverage, commonly between 2% and 5%.
Source: Louisiana Department of Insurance
On a home insured for $300,000, a 5% deductible means the first $15,000 of storm damage is yours before coverage kicks in — so it's worth knowing your number before a storm, not after.
There's a law in your favor, though. Under the state's single-deductible provision (for policies since 2010), your named-storm deductible applies once per calendar year, not once per storm. If two hurricanes hit the same year, you satisfy that big percentage deductible once — later qualifying storm claims that year fall under your standard deductible. We walk every client through both deductibles, in plain dollars, before they ever have to file.
The state of the market
The market crisis — and why coverage is coming back
Louisiana's home-insurance market was fairly called a crisis — but that's no longer the whole story.
What broke it
After Hurricanes Laura, Delta, Zeta, and Ida struck in quick succession, the losses were so severe that about a dozen insurers became insolvent, and Louisiana Citizens — the state's insurer of last resort, meant as a fallback — grew by more than 400% as families lost coverage and had nowhere else to turn.
What's changing now
According to the Louisiana Department of Insurance, 10 new insurers have entered the state since 2024, and 2025 brought the first rate decreases in five years. Competition is returning, capacity is rebuilding, and homeowners who felt stranded now have real options again.
Through all of it, Allstate kept writing Louisiana home coverage — a large part of why The Root Agency could keep protecting local families.
Let's find the discounts you've already earned.
Plain-English glossary
Home insurance terms, decoded
- Dwelling coverage
- The part of your policy that pays to repair or rebuild the physical structure of your home.
- Named-storm / hurricane deductible
- A separate deductible, set as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, that applies to damage from a named storm.
- Single-deductible law
- Louisiana's rule that your named-storm deductible applies only once per calendar year, not once per storm.
- FORTIFIED roof
- A roof built or retrofitted to a stronger construction standard that better resists high winds; it qualifies for a state-required discount.
- Replacement cost
- Coverage that pays to rebuild or replace without deducting for depreciation, based on current construction costs.
- Insurer of last resort
- Louisiana Citizens, the state-backed option for homeowners who can't find coverage on the private market; typically pricier, meant as a fallback.
Why choose us
Why Louisiana homeowners choose The Root Agency
We stayed when others left. The Root Agency insured Louisiana families through the 2016 floods and every hurricane since — and Allstate kept writing Louisiana home coverage when other carriers pulled back.
- Allstate Mobile Catastrophe Response — after a major storm, Allstate deploys mobile claims units into affected Louisiana neighborhoods; help that's local and on the ground, not just a phone tree.
- A deep, local team — owner Steve Root brings roughly 30 years in insurance and 20-plus with Allstate, backed by a team with 100-plus years of combined experience.
- People who live here — we know Louisiana risk because we carry it ourselves, parish by parish.
- Full bilingual service — our Spanish-speaking team serves you from quote to claim; se habla español.
- Plain dollars, before you sign — we explain your deductibles and discounts in real numbers, and we're here when it's time to file.
Where we serve
Serving all of Louisiana from our Baton Rouge office
The Root Agency is based in Baton Rouge and licensed to serve homeowners across the state. From East Baton Rouge Parish and nearby communities — Baker, Zachary, Central, Denham Springs, Prairieville, Gonzales — to New Orleans, Lafayette, Lake Charles, and beyond, we write coverage that reflects your property's real risk.
We don't claim a storefront in every town; we're your Baton Rouge–based team, serving Louisiana families statewide from our Goodwood Boulevard office. Ready to talk it through? Request your free home insurance review.
Home Insurance FAQ
Frequently asked questions about home insurance in Louisiana
Protect your Louisiana home the right way
Louisiana asks a lot of your home insurance — and the wrong policy shows up at exactly the wrong time. Let The Root Agency review your coverage, explain your deductibles in plain dollars, and apply every discount you've earned. No pressure, just honest guidance from a Baton Rouge agency that stayed through the storms.