Xactware Annual Property Report Highlights Most Common Contents Claims

Jewelry and watches remain the costliest content claims items, according to the latest Xactware Annual Property Report.

Data from the company’s 2015 report was outlined recently during the Verisk Monday webinar.

In its eleventh year, the property report on the housing and construction marketplace is made up of 24 in depth reports.

In 2015, the company’s full cycle claim analytical reporting tool processed more than 4.2 million estimates valued at $39.6 billion, said McCall Robins, project manager, Analytics for Xactware.

Estimate values were higher in 2015 due to thunderstorms and flooding in Texas and Oklahoma. Year end average value of property estimates totaled $9233. Because of the flooding, the most common type of loss was due to water and accounted for 1.2 million estimates, Robins said. Hail was the second most common type of loss with 990,000 estimates. While not as common, fire losses were expensive averaging more than $45,000 per loss, whereas losses due to water averaged $6,000.

The report highlights the top 20 personal loss groups by volume. Robins explained that adjusters handling property claims can choose from 15 million vendor specific items. Xactware reported 483,000 claims were processed in 2015 for a total value of more than $4.3 billion.

The top 10 common line items reported:

1. Clothing and accessories;
2. Housewares/home décor;
3. Tools;
4. Furniture – home and office;
5. Electronics;
6. Sporting goods;
7. Linens and soft goods;
8. Jewelry/watches;
9. Toys/games;
10. Personal care & beauty.

Jewelry and watches were deemed the costliest category at $688 million, and represented 20 percent of the total value of all contents estimates submitted.

According to Robins, theft was the most common cause of personal property loss.
Hail accounted for one of every four estimates in 2015. Seven states were responsible for the most hail claims: Texas, Colorado, Illinois, Missouri, Georgia, Minnesota and Oklahoma. Texas led the nation with 172 severe hail days in 2015, costing $2.4 billion.

The report offers a cost and trends analysis on a variety construction/repairs. According to Rob Lund, GC and manager of Xactware Structural Data Services, the reconstruction cost index is broken down by state and reveals a 3.66 percentage change (national average) from 2014.

There were nominal increases in labor and materials between 2014 and 2015. Lund explained that the nation’s housing and job market played a significant role in keeping both costs stable.

Water damage mitigation costs grew by 6 percent. Carpet costs revealed a slight decrease in materials which held steady in 2015, Lund said.