The Sacramento Bee is reporting today that California’s median six-month auto insurance rate has decreased by roughly 3 percent over the last year, to reach $809. Over the same period, the national median has also declined. The national median is now $675, or about 5.5% lower.
Quoting InsWeb, the Bee said that California men pay higher premiums than women with six-month medians of $836 and $772, respectively.
As well, the story says, drivers aged nineteen and under pay a median of $2,141 for a six month car insurance policy, while those just a bit older, in the 20-24 segment pay about a thousand dollars less, with their median cost being $1,154.
The lowest median rate in California goes to the 50-59-year-old drivers, who pay $654.
A three percent shift in the cost of auto insurance is considered relatively minor. The Bee also notes that California hasn’t had any major auto-insurance-related legislation that affected rates in the past year. Instead, rates are affected most by the average value of vehicles and the annual new-car sales in the Golden state. In the last year, the latter number decreased from roughly 1.6 million sales to about a million. The current trend among drivers is to retain older cars, or buy used vehicles, both of which generally come with cheaper insurance.