Average Car Insurance Rates: September 2026
Full-coverage car insurance averaged $2,241 a year in August 2026, up 1% since December. See which states are rising, which are falling, and what is next.
Summary
- The national average for full-coverage car insurance was $2,241 per year (about $187 per month) in August 2026 — up 0.9% since December and just 0.1% since July, according to Insurify's Data Center, which posted August figures this month.
- Insurify's mid-year projection for December was $2,242. Rates got there in August. Unless the second half breaks trend, 2026 finishes roughly where the forecast said, four months early.
- 26 of the 40 states in the monthly series cost more than they did in December. Connecticut still leads at +13.0% ($311), followed by Kentucky (+8.0%), West Virginia (+6.3%), Nevada (+6.0%), Illinois (+5.2%), and Florida (+5.1%).
- The steepest declines are in New Mexico (-6.8%), Arkansas (-4.7%), South Dakota (-3.6%), and Texas (-2.8%). New York's series shows a much larger drop than the mid-year report did — see the note below.
- Year over year, the national average is still 1.9% lower than August 2025. That cushion is shrinking every month, so compare quotes for your state before your renewal reprices you.
The national picture
The 2025 price break is over, but the rebound is a crawl, not a spike. The national full-coverage average moved from $2,221 in December to $2,241 in August — twenty dollars in eight months. July to August added two dollars.
The state-level picture is far noisier than that headline. In the July-to-August move alone, 20 states rose and 15 fell. The pattern from the mid-year report holds: insurers are pushing rates up in historically cheap markets while several of the most expensive states keep drifting down. Kentucky has now added $172 a year since December; Texas has shed $71.
Where the states we cover stand
Here's the August 2026 picture for the eighteen states in our guide library, plus the national benchmark. Three states — Michigan, Massachusetts, and New Jersey — are not published in Insurify's monthly series, so their rows carry the June 2026 figure from the Mid-Year Report and its first-half change.
| State | Avg. annual cost (Aug 2026) | Change since Dec 2025 | Change from July |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $2,429 | +1.5% | +0.5% |
| Texas | $2,449 | -2.8% | -0.3% |
| Florida | $2,839 | +5.1% | 0.0% |
| Georgia | $3,105 | -0.5% | 0.0% |
| Michigan† | $3,229 | +1.5% | — |
| Ohio | $1,405 | -0.4% | +0.3% |
| Virginia | $2,478 | +4.2% | +0.5% |
| Pennsylvania | $1,935 | +2.8% | +0.1% |
| Maryland | $3,638 | +1.5% | +0.4% |
| New York* | $2,651 | -29.6% | -2.4% |
| Illinois | $1,947 | +5.2% | +0.4% |
| North Carolina | $1,359 | +0.5% | -0.2% |
| New Jersey† | $2,923 | -5.3% | — |
| Arizona | $1,951 | +2.9% | 0.0% |
| Washington | $2,199 | +3.1% | 0.0% |
| Colorado | $2,610 | -1.1% | 0.0% |
| Connecticut | $2,699 | +13.0% | +1.0% |
| Massachusetts† | $1,690 | -4.8% | — |
| National average | $2,241 | +0.9% | +0.1% |
Source: Insurify Data Center, monthly state series through August 2026 (posted September 2026). Figures are two-year rolling medians for drivers ages 20–70 with clean records and average or better credit. † Not in the monthly series; June 2026 figure and first-half change from Insurify's 2026 Mid-Year Auto Report (updated August 11). * See the New York note below.
Two things stand out. Maryland is now the most expensive state in the monthly series at $3,638, ahead of Rhode Island ($3,583) — the story behind that is in our Maryland rate-shock analysis. And Florida, which the mid-year report had falling 4%, is rising in the monthly data: $2,702 in December, $2,839 in August, flat for the last month. That's a revision worth watching if you're a Florida driver shopping this fall.
Where rates are rising fastest
Connecticut has added $311 a year since December, a 13.0% climb that hasn't slowed — August was up another 1.0% on July. Kentucky (+$172, 8.0%), West Virginia (+$111, 6.3%), and Nevada (+$175, 6.0%) follow, with Illinois (+$97, 5.2%) and Florida (+$137, 5.1%) close behind. Five of those six started the year below the national average. Insurers are still correcting upward in markets that had been cheap.
Where rates are falling
New Mexico continues its slide, down $117 (6.8%) since December to $1,614. Arkansas (-$89), South Dakota (-$69), and Texas (-$71) round out the declines. Our falling-rates breakdown covers the states that have been trending down all year.
A note on New York. Insurify's monthly series now shows New York at $2,651 in August, down from $3,766 in December — a far steeper decline than the 5% first-half drop reported in the mid-year analysis, which put June at $2,840 (the monthly series agrees on June). The two sources diverge on where New York started the year, not where it is now. We're showing the monthly figures because they're the fresher publication, and we'll update this note if Insurify revises the series.
What's driving it
The cost pressure underneath the flat national number hasn't eased. Auto maintenance and repair costs have risen 45% over the past five years, roughly double the rate of inflation, and gas has climbed from about $3 to $4 a gallon. Bodily-injury claims cost 36% more than they did in 2020, and collision claims 42% more. When claims get more expensive, premiums follow — just not evenly across states.
What drivers can do this month
A national average that moved two dollars in a month tells you almost nothing about your renewal. Connecticut, Kentucky, Illinois, Virginia, and Florida drivers are in markets that are actively repricing; Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico drivers may be leaving money on the table by not re-shopping into a falling market. Either way, the move is the same: our cheapest car insurance companies guide shows which carriers post the lowest medians nationally and by state, and it takes a few minutes to check current rates for your profile before your renewal date does it for you.
We'll update these figures next month as fresh data lands. Last month's edition is here.
Rate data in this article comes from Insurify's Data Center monthly state series (August 2026 figures, posted September 2026), supplemented by Insurify's 2026 Mid-Year Auto Report (updated August 11, 2026) for the three states not published in the monthly series. Premiums reflect two-year rolling medians for drivers ages 20–70 with clean driving records and average or better credit; full-coverage figures reflect comprehensive and collision with $1,000 deductibles. Where the two Insurify publications disagree (Florida's first-half direction, New York's December starting point), this article uses the monthly series as the fresher source and says so in the text. Actual quotes vary by driver profile.