CHICAGO, May 13, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Auto insurance shopping in Q1 2025 increased 10% compared to the same period in 2024. Home insurance shopping was up 5% year over year, according to TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) research.

While the trend of elevated shopping levels has been consistent for some time, a key difference emerged over the last quarter for auto insurance. Higher-risk consumers are once again the most active shoppers for the first time since Q4 2021. Insurers may have returned to traditional practices of focusing rate increases on higher risk segments, rather than across the board.

As a result, higher-risk customers are still shopping for lower rates, while mid- and low-risk customers may have seen their rates stabilize. These findings and more are included in TransUnion’s latest quarterly Insurance Personal Lines Trends and Perspectives Report.

“As rates have settled for the majority of auto insurance customers, we are experiencing a return to historical insurance shopping patterns, which correlate price sensitivity closely to relative insurance risk,” said Patrick Foy, senior director of strategic planning for TransUnion’s Insurance business. “However, uncertainty in the cost and availability of parts for vehicle and home repairs, could eventually lead to a return of broad-based price increases, and weather-related catastrophes—while still unpredictable—have also become a far more common and costly phenomenon.”

The report notes that natural disasters have increased substantially, with 27 observed $1 billion dollar-plus disasters in 2024. This is more than double the 2010-2019 average of 13 disasters per year. The overall 2024 total cost was around $183 billion—also more than double the average annual cost in the 2010s.¹ 

Generational shifts in homeownership
The home insurance landscape is facing other changes as well. In 2009 more than half of Gen X consumers owned homes. However, in 2024, only 41% of Millennials at a similar age were homeowners. This is primarily due to the increasing size and cost of housing inventories that led to delays in homeownership or have priced many young adults out of the housing market entirely.

As a result, there is a shift in home composition, with two- and even three-generation households becoming more common. Only 38% of credit-active occupants were living alone as of 2024, compared to 45% in 2009. Consumers seem to expect this trend to continue. According to a recent TransUnion consumer survey,18% of Gen X, 26% of Millennials and 35% of Gen Z plan to provide financial support to parents and grandparents in the next five years.²

"As consumers are readjusting their lifestyles in the face of new economic realities, insurers must also become flexible with their policy offerings,” said Foy. “Multi-generational households represent a different risk profile as well as a different audience segment for their marketing.”

By acknowledging this emerging trend in household composition, insurers can design products that more effectively price the inherent risks. They can also design advertising campaigns that better reach and resonate with their desired customers.

Insurers can achieve more effective marketing with TransUnion’s TruAudience^® suite of marketing solutions that help with identity resolution, audience building and measurement.

Read the latest Insurance Personal Lines Trends and Perspectives Report.

1. Billion-Dollar Weather and Climate Disasters | Time Series | National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)
2. 2025 TransUnion Insurance Summit Consumer Survey

About TransUnion’s Insurance Personal Lines Trends and Perspectives Report
This quarterly publication examines trends in the personal lines insurance industry, including shopping, migration, violation, credit-based insurance stability and more. The Trends and Perspectives Report research is based almost entirely on TransUnion’s extensive internal data and analyses. It includes information on insurance shopping transactions from October 2023 to March 2025. However, the report excludes shopping data from insurance customers in California, Hawaii (auto), Massachusetts (auto), and Maryland (property), where credit-based insurance scoring information is not used for insurance rating or underwriting.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU)
TransUnion is a global information and insights company with over 13,000 associates operating in more than 30 countries. We make trust possible by ensuring each person is reliably represented in the marketplace. We do this with a Tru™ picture of each person: an actionable view of consumers, stewarded with care. Through our acquisitions and technology investments we have developed innovative solutions that extend beyond our strong foundation in core credit into areas such as marketing, fraud, risk and advanced analytics. As a result, consumers and businesses can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good^® — and it leads to economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for millions of people around the world. http://www.transunion.com/business