More Coverage For Your Average Home

Jan 20, 2021, 1:35 PM

What is considered the average American home? That’s a question with a lot of variables. “Home is where the heart is,” the saying goes, and your heart might be anywhere from a downtown apartment to a farm miles away from the closest neighbor.

The U.S. Census Bureau reports that as of 2019, the biggest proportion of houses across the country have three bedrooms, a single bathroom (though nearly as many houses have two bathrooms), and are between 1,000 and 1,499 square feet.

Square footage for new homes built in the last five years has fallen from an average of 2,754 in 2015 to 2,518 in 2019. At the same time, almost half (49%) of all houses sold in 2019 had four bedrooms or more.

Any way you look at it, that’s a lot of house for a few people. If you’re in one of those big houses, it’s a perfect reason to boost your Hastings Mutual Homeowners coverage with our additional insurance called Homeowners Coverage Plus. Here’s a look at just a few of the benefits it includes:

Identity Recovery

I’ve discussed this before; it helps you get back on your feet if your identity is stolen, and you have to replace your driver’s license, repair your bank account, clean up your Facebook ID, and so on. This can be a long process, one that can affect your finances and personal profile for years if it isn’t fixed correctly. Having the support of Hastings Mutual makes the process easier. Identity recovery services are included in our Homeowners policy, and Coverage Plus helps by also providing $10,000 coverage for actual expenses associated with identity recovery.

Incidental Business Liability

This provides coverage for injury or property damage that occurs when you’re using your house for a small “side business.” It can be anything from hosting music lessons to yard sales. It’s also for the kind of tasks your kids do: lawn care, caddying, newspaper delivery — as long as gross receipts are less than $3,000 a year. If your side business is more than just an “evening and weekend” kind of thing, contact your local independent insurance agent for other available options including Hastings Mutual Businessowners coverage instead.

Replacement Cost on Personal Property

I got into details on this one too. If there’s damage or some kind of loss to your property, we’ll pay the replacement cost, not the depreciated value, which may mean you’ll be getting more money for whatever was lost.

Talk with your agent about Homeowners and Coverage Plus insurance and find out what it can do for you.

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