Lyft driver Elwin Green knew exactly what he was paying to insure his home in Pittsburgh's Homewood neighborhood.

What he didn’t know was that his homeowners insurance bill was more than twice what the average homeowner in some of Allegheny County’s wealthiest communities are paying.

Green, 74, pays Allstate $3,875 a year to insure his 2,350-square-foot house in predominately Black neighborhood of Homewood.

By contrast, homeowners in predominately white communities such as Fox Chapel, Mt. Lebanon, Sewickley and Shadyside are paying $1,500 to $1,700 a year for comparable properties, according to an analysis of insurance rates.

Green was stunned when he saw the numbers.

Lyft driver Elwin Green, 74, at his Homewood home on Wednesday, August 19, 2026. (Justin Guido/For the Post-Gazette)

“I was shocked,” he said. “I was perplexed by the question of why my rate was so high in relation to what someone else might be paying.

“Emotionally, I felt dumb. Like, wow. How could I have missed this?”

‘Unfair discrimination’

Green’s experience lands squarely in the center of a disturbing question raised by a new national analysis of homeowners insurance rates: Does the color of a neighborhood’s population influence how much homeowners pay to protect their homes?

The Consumer Federation of America says the answer appears to be yes.

The Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group examined homeowners insurance premiums and racial demographics in ZIP codes across the country and found what it calls “evidence of a substantial racial premium gap.”

Nationwide, homeowners in predominately Black communities paid an average of 16% more for insurance than homeowners in predominately white communities — about $500 more a year.

The disparity was even larger in predominately Hispanic communities nationwide, with homeowners paying an average of 30% more, or about $950 extra annually, compared with homeowners in predominately white communities.

And Pennsylvania stands out in the CFA analysis.

The state had the nation’s second largest Black-white racial premium gap, with homeowners in predominately Black ZIP codes paying 57% more for homeowners insurance — an average of $1,048 more a year. Only Michigan had a higher gap, at 74%.

“We don’t think this racial premium gap is due to actual risk,” said Michael Delong, a research and advocacy associate with the CFA.

“It’s due to some kind of unfair discrimination,” he said. “Whether it’s covert or overt, or whether companies are using some factors that influence it, we’re not sure.”

Disputed findings

The national pattern doesn’t disappear when you zoom in on Allegheny County — it’s actually worse.

CFA researchers analyzed predominately Black and predominately white ZIP codes across Allegheny County and found that homeowners in predominately Black communities such as Homewood, the Hill District and Braddock are paying about $1,800 a year for homeowners insurance.

Fox Chapel homeowners, meanwhile, average about $1,540 a year. In Mt. Lebanon, the average is about $1,619.

The findings are sharply disputed by the insurance industry.

The National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, which represents insurers, questioned the CFA’s methodology and conclusions, arguing that the analysis relies on insurance quote estimates and does not account for all of the factors that insurers use to determine risk.

The association says geographic pricing — charging different rates based on ZIP codes or neighborhoods — is actuarially sound because location can reflect measurable differences in the likelihood and cost of losses.

Insurers, the organization says, are prohibited from using race or ethnicity to set premiums.

“Every state’s insurance rating law mandates that premiums reflect expected losses and expressly prohibits classification by race or ethnicity,” said Erica Weyhenmeyer, senior policy vice president at the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, based in Indianapolis.

“Banning ZIP codes rating, as the CFA recommends, would force lower-risk homeowners to subsidize higher-risk ones, reduce insurer availability in the most vulnerable markets, and only increase affordability challenges.”

Comprehensive findings

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department, which regulates the state’s insurance industry, did not respond to requests for comment on the CFA findings.

But the CFA rejects the suggestion that its findings are based on little more than rough estimates of insurance quotes.

Ethan Weiland, one of the researchers who conducted the analysis, said the data came from Quadrant Information Services, a company whose customers include major insurance carriers and insurance comparison websites. Quadrant collects the rates that insurers file with state regulators for homeowners with specific characteristics, creating a massive database of what insurers would charge for different types of properties and policyholders.

“All insurers in every state have to file what they‘re going to charge a homeowner with certain characteristics with their insurance regulator,” Weiland said. “What Quadrant does is they essentially collect all of that information.”

That gives researchers something much more powerful than a handful of homeowners’ insurance bills, Weiland said.

Insurance comparison websites use Quadrant’s data to generate quotes after consumers enter information such as the age of their homes, ZIP codes and other characteristics.

Insurers themselves use Quadrant's data to see how their competitors are pricing policies.

That means the database allows researchers to compare insurance costs while controlling for many of the variables that insurers themselves say drive premiums. The CFA analysis included factors such as credit scores, coverage amounts, roof age, replacement value and the estimated cost to rebuild a house after a fire or other catastrophic loss.

“We’re really able to input all these characteristics and make sure that we’re making apples-to-apples comparisons among ZIP codes,” Weiland said.

‘Never questioned what I was paying’

Carol Hardeman’s experience in Pittsburgh’s Hill District offers another local example of the disparity identified in the CFA report.

The CFA estimates that homeowners in the Hill District pay $1,800 a year for homeowners insurance — an amount the consumer group considers excessive.

Hardeman pays State Farm $1,880 a year to insure her 2,073-square-foot home, which has been in her family for three generations. She inherited it from her mother, and her mother inherited it from her grandmother. Hardeman’s home has a taxable property value of $60,200.

She never stopped to wonder whether the premium was higher than what other homeowners were paying.

“I never questioned what I was paying,” Hardeman said. “I took for granted that I’m being charged what I’m supposed to be charged.”

Carol Hardeman poses for a portrait on Milwaukee Street in the Upper Hill District, where she owns a house that has been in her family for three generations. (Alexandra Wimley/Post-Gazette)

Green isn’t so sure about that anymore.

After learning that the average Homewood homeowner pays about $1,808 a year for insurance — and that homeowners in some of Allegheny County’s wealthiest communities pay less — Green (who has never filed a claim) went back to his insurance agent with questions.

Green was paying Allstate $3,875 a year to insure his Homewood house, which has a taxable value of $19,600, according to Allegheny County property records. But Green’s insurance premium isn’t based on that taxable value. His policy lists the home’s replacement cost at $762,998 — the estimated amount it would take to rebuild the home if it were destroyed.

During the phone call, Green’s agent — Jill Brumbaugh of Jill Brumbaugh Allstate Insurance in Monaca — immediately found discounts that knocked nearly 30% off his premium, reducing it from $3,875 to $2,734 a year.

Brumbaugh declined to discuss Green’s policy with a reporter. But she rejected the suggestion that race plays a role in determining what homeowners pay.

“It’s based on the age of the house, the size. Is it brick or vinyl?” she said. “All kinds of factors go into insuring a home, not just where it is. Insurance companies don’t care what color you are as long as you pay your premium.”

Green is grateful for the immediate discount on his insurance rate, but he’s not finished shopping.

Green, who reported on the energy industry for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from 2004 to 2011, now works full-time as a ride share driver while also serving as a full-time caregiver for his wife, who has leukemia. Every dollar he has to send to the insurance company is a dollar he must earn behind the wheel.

“It does mean that I have to work a little bit more than I otherwise might, in order to earn the money to pay it,” Green said.

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