Car-insurance rates depend on a litany of factors: driving record and claim history, gender, age, marital status and more. Then there's the elephant in the room — location, location, location. That alone can multiply your rates by nearly eightfold, according to a new study by CarInsurance.com. The Foster City, Calif., insurance comparison site compared rates across six major auto-insurance carriers for a 2014 Honda Accord with a 40-year-old male owner who commutes 12 miles per day and has a clean record and good credit, with typical policy and deductible terms.
Related: Detroit Tops U.S. In Car Insurance Costs
The result? Detroit's 48227 ZIP code has the highest annual rate by a lot, averaging six-month premiums of $5,109. That’s 130 percent more than Michigan's average, according to CarInsurance.com. But just 102 miles south, Green Springs, Ohio's 44836 is the cheapest ZIP code in America, averaging just $647 for the same coverage.
New York City's Brooklyn borough's 11226 ZIP code and Philadelphia's 19132 ZIP code round out the priciest locales, while Arden, N.C., and Saco, Maine, join Green Springs in discount territory. Want to know the priciest and cheapest ZIP codes, according to CarInsurance.com? Read on.
The 10 priciest ZIP codes:
1. Detroit (48227): $5,109 average for six months
2. Brooklyn, N.Y. (11226): $3,877
3. Philadelphia (19132): $2,760
4. Providence, R.I. (02903): $2,749
5. New Orleans (70117): $2,542
6. Los Angeles (90029): $2,416
7. Woodbridge, Conn. (06525): $2,291
8. Baltimore (21216): $2,256
9. Miami, Fla. (33142): $2,248
10. Royalton, Ky. (41464): $2,104
The 10 cheapest ZIP codes:
1. Green Springs, Ohio (44836): $647
2. Arden, N.C. (28704): $671
3. Saco, Maine (04072): $709
4. Christiansburg, Va. (24073): $751
5. Boise, Idaho (83706): $753
6. Lake Havasu City, Ariz. (86403): $769
7. West Lafayette, Ind. (47907): $770
8. Allouez, Wis. (54302): $776
9. Concord, N.H. (03303): $785
10. Normal, Ill. (61761): $827
It’s little surprise that most of the priciest ZIP codes are urban. CarInsurance.com surveyed cities in the aggregate and used the highest ZIP code for each — to wit, Detroit's collection of ZIP codes would otherwise have accounted for the entire top 10.
But car shoppers should remember that even the priciest location is often just down the road from a more affordable one. The Motor City is known for pricey insurance — a product of Michigan's unlimited personal injury protection and Detroit’s high rate of uninsured motorists, InsuranceQuotes.com explained in a 2014 study. But if you moved to the city’s southwest suburb of Taylor, Mich., CarInsurance.com's average rates drop to a more manageable $2,339.
Obviously your specific rates will vary, but insurers generally start with location.
"ZIP codes are judged to have different risk levels based on the number and severity of car insurance claims within the area," said Michelle Megna, CarInsurance.com's managing editor. "From there, car insurance companies create the base rate used as the starting point for drivers buying coverage, and then add other pricing factors such as the driver's age, driving record and type of car."
Cities themselves need not always be expensive. CarInsurance.com says the national average is $1,231, and some major ones — Denver, for example — match that.
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