New York households paid an estimated $1,935 on average for personal auto insurance in 2024, according to a report by the industry’s Insurance Information Institute (Triple I). This was an increase from $1,753 in 2023.
Triple I further estimates that New Yorkers spent 2.23% of the state’s median household income on personal auto insurance in 2024, up from 2.15% in 2023. Nationwide, households spent an average of 1.59%. New York ranked fourth highest in 2023, after Louisiana, Florida and Mississippi.
The Triple I report, New York Personal Auto Insurance Premium and Cost Drivers, comes after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul vowed that making auto insurance more affordable would be a legislative priority for her administration in 2026.
Triple I identified what it says are the main costs that should be tackled to make auto insurance in the state more affordable: elevated repair costs, severe injury claims, high claims-handling expenses, and accident frequency.
“By tackling these cost drivers, New Yorkers could see meaningful steps toward improving long-term insurance affordability,” said Michel Léonard, chief economist and data scientist at the Triple I.
In her 2026 State of the State address, Hochul vowed to crack down on fraud including staged accidents that are behind “sky high” auto insurance premiums averaging $4,000 a year — $1,500 more than the national average. She advocated reforming the serious injury threshold under the state’s no-fault insurance law, to reduce litigation, capping non-economic damages for drivers engaged in criminal behavior at the time of the accident, giving insurers more time to investigate claims where fraud is suspected, and other measures.
The Democratic governor said New Yorkers “should not pay more for the same coverage” and vowed this is the year, the state does “something about it.”
Trial Lawyers
Hochul’s proposals could face a tough legislative battle as the state’s politically influential trial lawyers have criticized them, as reported by Spectrum News. The New York State Trial Lawyers Association (NYSTLA) called Hochul’s proposals a “victim tax” and a “disaster for crash victims’ rights.” The lawyers maintain that the changes would make it more difficult for injured residents to obtain claim payments and that if they were to lead to lower costs, insurers would not pass those savings along to insureds.
However, there is also a relatively new advocate for reform. Backed by Uber, the Citizens for Affordable Rates (CAR) is advocating for lowering insurance costs for auto, home, and health insurance it says have become a “growing burden for families and businesses alike, adding to an already severe affordability crisis in the state.” The group wants to attack fraud and excess litigation among other causes of high costs.
Affordability Trend
The Triple I report also comes after an April 2025 report from the Insurance Research Council found that auto insurance is more affordable now than at the start of the 21st century.
The IRC, which like Triple I is an affiliate of The Institutes, concluded that auto insurance affordability has improved over the last two decades. The average expenditure as a share of income was 1.64% in 2000 even though the expenditure on auto insurance was $690.
The auto insurance expenditure for the 2000s averaged 1.7%, according to the IRC. For the 2010s, the expenditure averaged 1.6%. The IRC said it expected affordability to deteriorate for 2023 and 2024 due to recent increases in insurance rates.
Topics Auto
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