Multifamily Insurance Costs 77% More Per Unit Than in 2019

There's a temptation, now that premiums are easing, to treat the last few years as a spike that will pass. The per-unit numbers say otherwise: the cost has been reset, and budgeting as if it will snap back to 2019 is how margin quietly disappears.

The number

Real per-unit multifamily insurance cost climbed from about $465 in 2019 to $821 in 2024 — a 77% increase, driven by a 25% surge in 2023 alone (Federal Reserve / PREA).

Premiums are finally softening — CIAB shows all-accounts pricing down 1.2% in Q1, with quality-construction accounts seeing 10–30% relief — but the level has been permanently reset, and high-hazard markets like Houston still exceed $1,200 per unit.

The problem this exposes

Softening is not recovery. If underwriting models treat the post-2023 base as a temporary spike, every acquisition pro forma and reserve budget is quietly too optimistic. And because insurance is a fixed line you can't negotiate down much, the only place to protect the margin it's eating is in the controllable costs — which most operators can't see clearly across a portfolio.

The fix, by name

FYN's Portfolio view and QuickBooks sync make the controllable lines visible enough to defend. Instead of insurance shock hiding a slow drift in maintenance, turn, and vendor spend, a portfolio-level cost picture shows where every controllable dollar goes property by property, with the books kept clean and current — so you budget from the new floor and manage what you actually can.

What it looks like in practice

Respect the floor, defend the rest

A 77% per-unit jump isn't reversing, softening headlines aside. The operators who hold margin are the ones who budget from the new base and get ruthless visibility into everything else — which is exactly what FYN's portfolio view and clean synced books provide.