The latest reports of the 360Value® Overview of Property Reconstruction Cost Changes show reconstruction costs are higher in the United States and Canada compared with the same time last year. In the United States, 47 states and the District of Columbia had reconstruction cost increases of more than 4 percent, with 27 of those states seeing an increase of more than 5 percent compared with one year ago.
That’s the largest number of states with an increase of more than 5 percent since April 2007, when 30 states saw increases of the same magnitude and residential construction experienced tremendous growth.
North Dakota continued to top the charts at more than 9.8 percent as construction costs soared because of growth from the state’s oil boom.
Reconstruction cost data is used to estimate replacement costs that are typically the basis for determining policy limits for property insurance policies.
In Canada, overall reconstruction costs at the national level increased 4.9 percent from January 2014 to January 2015. During the past 12 months, all ten Canadian provinces experienced reconstruction cost increases. The largest increase, of nearly 10 percent, was seen in Saskatchewan.
To learn more and see the complete reports, view the 360Value® Overview of Property Reconstruction Cost Changes for first-quarter 2015.