Car Insurance Price Tracker

Car insurance prices in the United States are falling on average after several years of steep increases, while prices overall keep rising. In September 2026, the government's price index for motor vehicle insurance was 5.0% lower than in September 2025, by our arithmetic on the official index values of 846.102 and 890.473 ¹. Over the same months, the index for all consumer prices rose 3.7%, from 324.800 to 336.940 ².

This page follows that index every month, sets it against overall inflation and the cost of repairing cars, and adds a summary of the latest car insurance rate filings in Texas. The figures below update automatically when new data comes out; the date they were last updated is shown above them.

The figures come from the Consumer Price Index (CPI) published each month by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). The motor vehicle insurance index covers collision, comprehensive, liability, medical payments, uninsured motorist and personal injury protection coverage for private passenger vehicles ⁴. BLS follows a fixed sample of real policies over time and holds the drivers' characteristics constant, so the index measures the change in the price of the same coverage, not the change in what people chose to pay ⁴.

Three limits matter when you read it:

• It is national only. BLS publishes the motor vehicle insurance index at the U.S. city average level ⁴. There is no official state or city version, so this page gives no state or city price changes.
• It is not anyone's premium. The index is an average price change. Your own price depends on your driving record, your claims, where you garage the car, the car itself, your coverage and other factors ⁸.
• Some months have no comparison. BLS did not collect survey data for October 2025 because of a lapse in appropriations, and the October and November 2025 values are not available ⁷. October and November 2026 therefore have no year-earlier month to compare with. In those months the headline stays on the newest month that has one, and the chart shows a break.

Each percentage on this page is our own arithmetic on the official index: the month's value divided by the value a year earlier, minus one, rounded to one decimal. The index values are shown so anyone can check the result.

Insurers set rates from the cost they expect for future claims, and state law requires that rates not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory ⁸. The main forces behind the index are the costs that feed those claims.

Repair costs. Collision, comprehensive and property damage claims pay to fix cars. The cost to fix or replace a car is one of the factors insurers weigh ⁸, and when BLS updates the model year of the cars in its sample each fall, newer models that cost more to repair can show premium increases ⁴. In September 2026, the index for motor vehicle maintenance and repair was 5.8% higher than a year earlier, by our arithmetic on index values of 468.491 and 442.843 ³. Repair costs rising while insurance prices fall shows how other forces can outweigh one cost. More on this in how repair costs push car insurance up.

Vehicle prices. A car that costs more to buy usually costs more to replace after a theft or a total loss, which is why the table above also shows the price indexes for new vehicles and for used cars and trucks. The NAIC lists the type of car and the cost to fix or replace it among the factors insurers use ⁸.

Claims, litigation and weather. The National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) lists extreme weather, the cost of litigation, reinsurance costs and inflation among the forces that push premiums up ⁸.

Timing. Rates change through filings with each state, and a new rate reaches each policyholder at renewal. That is why the index can keep moving in one direction for months after the costs behind it have turned. The index rose 20.3% in 2023 and 11.3% in 2024, measured December to December ⁵, and 2.8% in 2025, its smallest December-to-December increase in five years ⁶. The decline in 2026 undoes only part of those increases.

Texas publishes every property and casualty rate filing as open data ⁹, which lets us count how many personal auto filings asked for increases and decreases in the last full quarter. The summary above lists the largest filed changes and names the legal company that filed. Each percentage is the filing's average for that company's existing policyholders, and a filed change may still be pending, approved or withdrawn. The Texas page lists the most recent filings, and what is a rate filing? explains the process.

We are not affiliated with the insurers named.

A national decline does not mean every bill goes down. Inside one filing, an insurer can lower rates for some drivers and raise them for others, and your own changes (a new driver, a ticket, a move, a lost discount) can outweigh the average. If your renewal went up, compare it with last year's notice line by line, then ask your insurer what changed. Why did my car insurance go up? goes through the common reasons, and are car insurance rates going down? covers decreases reported by regulators. The NAIC suggests getting quotes from several companies and comparing like policies ⁸; you can compare quotes here.

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• ¹ Official record + Estimate: BLS motor vehicle insurance index, 846.102 in September 2026 and 890.473 in September 2025; the 5.0% decline is our arithmetic on those values. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ² Official record + Estimate: BLS all items index, 336.940 in September 2026 and 324.800 in September 2025; the 3.7% increase is our arithmetic on those values. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ³ Official record + Estimate: BLS motor vehicle maintenance and repair index, 468.491 in September 2026 and 442.843 in September 2025; the 5.8% increase is our arithmetic on those values. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ⁴ Official record: BLS description of the motor vehicle insurance index, what it covers, how it holds policies constant, the model-year update and its national-only publication. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ⁵ Official record: BLS, motor vehicle insurance prices rose 20.3% in 2023 and 11.3% in 2024. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ⁶ Official record: BLS, motor vehicle insurance prices rose 2.8% in 2025, the smallest December-to-December increase in five years. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ⁷ Official record: BLS November 2025 CPI release, no survey data collected for October 2025 and the October and November 2025 values not available. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ⁸ Official record: NAIC consumer article on how premiums are set, the factors insurers use and the advice to compare like policies. Checked October 15, 2026.
• ⁹ Official record: Texas Department of Insurance rate filing data on data.texas.gov, the source of the Texas summary. Checked October 15, 2026.