It isn't fun to be a homeowner these days. None only does the value of your investment fall by the day, maintaining your home can be very expensive, too. Not to mention, there's a new piece of bad news to contend with - higher home insurance cost.

Home insurance cost trends have only been rising own for years now. It's just that these days, it isn't gradual like it used to be. This year, your average home insurance cost is likely to jump up 5%. That's just for this year. No one has seen insurance premiums rise this way in at least six years.

If you happen to be unlucky enough to be a homeowner in Georgia, Texas, Pennsylvania or Florida, you can expect your quotes to rise by up to 20%. This is a fine time for this to be happening, of course. Millions of Americans are behind on their mortgage pains and worry about losing their homes altogether. Millions more are upside down on their mortgage - where they find that they owe more on their house than their house is actually worth.

So why is this happening now? Why have the insurers chosen to pull something like this at a time when everyone's in real trouble?

The answer could be that the insurance companies are in trouble themselves. Hurricane after hurricane across the middle of the country has caused tens of billions of dollars worth of manage to homes and property everywhere. The insurance companies have had to pay.

There are other reasons too - your insurance company has to do something to lighten its load when there's too much risk that it holds. It needs to go to a reinsurer and pay them huge premiums.

Sometimes, in some communities, the cost of home insurance can go through the roof for a simple reason - there are just too many disasters in that area and most home insurance companies just leave the place. They won't accept insurance from anyone there anymore. Whatever companies stay back, get to charge whatever they want.

What do the insurers do with the premiums they collect from you? Well, typically, they invest it in safe bonds.They need to go with low risk. Most of it is in bonds, and they don't yield much. When they are squeezed like this, the only place that home insurance agencies have to turn to is you.

One of the best things you can do to lower your premiums is to tell your insurance company that you want a high deductible policy. What that means is that should a hurricane or something go past your house, you have to be prepared to pay good deal of money before the insurance company will pay anything. But at least it's better than nothing.