LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Many in the Las Vegas Valley have seen their car insurance rates increase in recent months.
UNLV employee and car insurance customer Marde Closson says her auto insurance costs have gone up close to $100 per month.
"I think it's ridiculous because my insurance company hasn't had to pay out anything for me and my driving," Closson says.
In order to raise rates here, auto insurance companies must first get approval from the Nevada Division of Insurance.
On Monday, the state approved what is slated to be a 16% (on average) rate increase for over 470,000 State Farm customers in the state, which will go into effect on May 6.
Later this month, rates for thousands of Farmers Insurance auto customers are slated to go up nearly 20%.
The driver, as with so many economic changes since the pandemic, is caused by multiple factors.
First, car insurance is expensive anyway here in Southern Nevada, partly because the roads are so crowded.
Many workers commute for second or third shift jobs, which means there are always cars on the roadways.
Also, automobile thefts are up. Partly due to social media trends that made it trendy to steal certain makes and models, auto thefts are up over 30% from last year to
this year, according to Metro Police.
But there are other factors — supply chain issues with auto parts, labor shortages within the repair industry, and medical claim cost increases.
In an email to Channel 13, Janet Ruiz of the Insurance Information Institute, says there are also more crashes in recent years.
"The cost of auto claims has soared since the pandemic began in 2020," Ruiz says.
Nevada Insurance Commissioner Scott Kipper says it is possible that some of these market forces ease in the coming months, but he says that's not likely to happen in the next 6-9 months.
He says, however, that there are some things car insurance customers can do to try to save some money.
"Make sure you have the right amount of coverage because sometimes you can have too much, especially as your automobile ages," Kipper said. "Also, find out if you're taking advantage of all of your available discounts. The third thing we tell people is just to shop around. There are over 100 carriers writing personal auto insurance lines in Nevada."
