Does a security system lower your homeowners insurance in Oregon?

It may. Nearly every major carrier advertises a protective device discount covering burglar alarms, smoke and fire alarms, and in some cases water leak devices. But none of the major carriers publishes what that discount is worth. In Oregon a discount is a filed rate factor, filed with the Division of Financial Regulation under ORS 737.205, so the amount that applies to your policy is specific to your carrier and your rating plan. Your agent can look it up. There is no Oregon law requiring an alarm discount to exist at all.

How much is a home security insurance discount worth?

No major carrier publishes a figure. The widely repeated 5 to 20 percent range traces to two sentences on a single undated Insurance Information Institute page, and the 15 to 20 percent upper end requires a sophisticated sprinkler system in addition to a centrally reporting fire and burglar alarm. Articles quoting 20 percent for a security system alone have dropped the sprinkler requirement. Ask your agent what credit is actually filed on your policy before you buy equipment.

Does Oregon require insurers to give a wildfire mitigation discount?

No. Oregon requires disclosure, not a discount. Under ORS 742.277, an insurer raising your premium for a reason materially related to wildfire risk must describe what mitigation actions would result in a discount, incentive or other premium adjustment, and the amount of that adjustment. The statute says if any, so the answer can be nothing. A 2026 bill, SB 1540, would have required insurers to credit mitigation; it cleared its policy committee unanimously, stalled in Senate Rules, and died when the session adjourned on March 6, 2026.

Do I need an alarm permit in Bend or Redmond, Oregon?

Bend's alarm registration is voluntary, but false alarm fees begin at the second false alarm in a twelve month period, and after a third false alarm responded to by police the City may stop providing police response to that alarm owner. Redmond requires a permit for commercial and residential systems: 40 dollars initially, 10 dollars to renew, expiring every three years. Redmond false alarms cost 100 dollars each for the second and 250 dollars each for the third and beyond, and an unpermitted system can draw a service fee of up to 500 dollars for each police response.

The Security Discount Is Real. In Central Oregon, It's Not the Number That Matters.

Q: What documentation does my insurance agent need for my alarm system?

Typically a monitoring certificate confirming active professional monitoring, and a system summary listing what is installed and what it protects. Alarm.com's own guidance is that monitoring certificates are provided by the monitoring station associated with your account and that customers should contact their service provider to obtain one, so it is not something you can download yourself. A window sticker or an app screenshot is not proof of monitoring.

Devin Sole
Aug 27
12 min read

It comes up on almost every security consultation, usually near the end, usually a little sheepishly.

"Does this get me anything off my insurance?"

Short answer: probably a little. Nobody will tell you exactly how much, and there's a real reason for that.

Longer answer, and the one worth your time: in Central Oregon right now, the alarm credit is usually the smallest lever you have. There's a much larger one sitting right next to it — and on a wildfire-related increase, Oregon law says your insurer has to put a number in writing. Almost nobody asks.

Here's both, honestly.

Contemporary Central Oregon home at golden hour with cleared defensible space and a discreet security camera under the eave

Nearly Every Major Carrier Offers the Credit. None of Them Will Tell You What It's Worth.

We read the live discount pages in August 2026. The pattern is remarkably consistent.

State Farm: "You may qualify for homeowners insurance discounts if you have installed fire, smoke, or burglar alarms or any other eligible home monitoring system known as a protective device." No percentage. And worth knowing if you bought a system on this basis: "ADT home monitoring system discounts previously offered to State Farm homeowner insurance customers are no longer available."

Travelers lists a protective device discount covering smoke detectors and fire alarms, interior sprinkler systems, home security systems, and "smart or connected home technology, which alerts the customer that a fire or burglar event is occurring." No percentage.

Allstate is the tersest of the group. Its discounts page lists a "Protective device discount — Save when your home has theft or fire protection devices," and nothing more. A separate Allstate resource article adds that "installing safety or security devices in your home may be another way to help reduce homeowners insurance costs," then lists burglar alarms, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, sprinklers, deadbolts, and water and gas leak detectors. No percentage on either page.

Farmers — on its general discounts page, not its homeowners one — is the only national carrier that describes what the system has to do: "a security system with an outside signal and connection to local police," and "a fire alarm that automatically alerts the local fire department." Still no percentage.

Nationwide lists a "Protective device" discount: "Get a discount if your home has smoke detectors, fire alarms, burglar alarms or other qualifying devices." No percentage.

PEMCO, the Northwest regional carrier, has the most useful wording anyone publishes: "Save when you use fire, gas, theft and water devices that have alarms, are self- or centrally monitored or have an automatic shutoff." Note that it covers water, and note that it accepts self-monitoring. Still no percentage.

And Liberty Mutual, which is absorbing the Safeco brand through 2026, doesn't list a protective device discount at all. Its discounts page runs to six items — early shopper, new or renovated home, new roof, multi-policy, preferred payment, paperless — and security isn't one of them.

Six national carriers, one regional, zero published numbers.

So where does "save 5% to 20%" come from? Two sentences, on one page, at the Insurance Information Institute — an insurer-funded trade association, on an article carrying no date and no author. They read:

"You can usually get discounts of at least 5 percent for a smoke detector, burglar alarm or dead-bolt locks. Some companies offer to cut your premium by as much as 15 or 20 percent if you install a sophisticated sprinkler system and a fire and burglar alarm that rings at the police, fire or other monitoring stations."

Read that second sentence again. The 15–20% requires a sprinkler system and a centrally reporting alarm. Every article promising you 20% for a security system has quietly deleted the sprinklers. That's not a rounding error. That's a different purchase.

To its credit, the III says the quiet part in the very next lines — "These systems aren't cheap and not every system qualifies for a discount. Before you buy such a system, find out what kind your insurer recommends, how much the device would cost and how much you'd save on premiums."

That's the right advice, and it's the reason for this post. We don't promise premium discounts, and we'd be careful with anyone who does. Credits are carrier-specific and not ours to decide.

Why Nobody Will Quote You a Number

This is the part that earns you credibility with your own agent, so it's worth two minutes.

In Oregon, a discount isn't a courtesy. It's a filed rate factor.

ORS 737.205 requires that "Every insurer shall file with the Director of the Department of Consumer and Business Services copies of the rates, rating plans and rating systems used by it," and that "A filing shall be open to public inspection immediately upon submission to the director." ORS 737.310 sets the standard those filings have to meet: rates "shall not be excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory."

Three things follow, and they're all useful:

Your agent applies the credit. Your agent doesn't set it. There's nothing to negotiate at the desk. Asking harder won't move it.

Two carriers can lawfully give very different credits for the identical system — or one can give nothing at all. Each filed its own plan with its own actuarial support. That isn't inconsistency; that's how the system works.

The number exists in writing somewhere. It's in a rating plan on file with the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation. Your agent can look up what applies to your policy. They usually just haven't been asked.

We went looking for a state-level rule that would standardize any of this — through Oregon's insurance statutes, through OAR chapter 836, through DFR's bulletin index — and found none. There's no Oregon requirement that a burglar or fire alarm earn you anything. It is entirely a carrier decision.

The Lever That Actually Moves an Oregon Premium

Now the part that matters more than everything above.

Cotality's 2025 Wildfire Risk Report, published August 18, 2025, put 36,166 homes in the Bend metro area at moderate or greater wildfire risk, with $15.3 billion in reconstruction cost value — 11th of the fifteen Western metro areas that report ranks. Statewide, Oregon had 128,007 such homes and $47.5 billion at stake. Cotality's 2026 edition, published this month, still lists Oregon among the ten most wildfire-exposed states in the West.

That exposure is now the single biggest input into what you pay — and into whether you're offered a policy at all.

You may have watched it happen locally. In March 2025, roughly 200 homeowners in Sisters Country opened non-renewal notices from Farmers. Two years ago, brokers told the Oregon Capital Chronicle that Safeco and Progressive were "effectively no longer writing new policies in certain ZIP codes in and around Bend, Sisters and Sunriver" — both carriers disputed that characterization at the time, and we cite it as a snapshot of how tight the market felt in early 2024, not as a description of anyone's appetite today. Ask your agent what's actually available now.

And as this publishes, the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation has a wildfire emergency order in effect — issued July 31, 2026 and running through August 30, 2026 unless the Director extends it — barring insurers from cancelling or non-renewing a policy "solely because of a claim directly resulting from the circumstances of the wildfire disaster," except for fraud or intentional misrepresentation. The ZIP codes it covers are listed in DFR Bulletin 2026-6, updated August 20, 2026. Both 97759 (Sisters) and 97702 (south Bend) are on it.

Here's what most homeowners don't know: the carriers are already paying for wildfire mitigation, and at least one is paying for it in Oregon by name.

State Farm's own discounts page says: "In Oregon, State Farm offers wildfire mitigation discounts to eligible Homeowners, Rental Dwelling and Farm or Ranch policyholders who take proactive steps to protect their homes from wildfires." Community level runs through Firewise USA. Property level runs through the IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home standard.

Then this sentence, which deserves to be read twice: "in some high-risk wildfire areas, the Wildfire Prepared Home certification may also be required for the property to be insured by State Farm."

Not a discount. A condition of coverage.

And here's the detail worth noticing. On that same page, State Farm publishes actual percentages for its Colorado wildfire mitigation program — 2% to 5% off the wildfire portion of the premium at the community level, 4% to 18% at the property level. For the Oregon program, it publishes no percentage at all.

The number exists. It's just not shown to Oregonians. Which brings us to the useful part.

Oregon Law Says They Have to Show You the Number

This is the most valuable thing in this post, and we've never met a homeowner who knew it.

Under ORS 742.277, if your insurer raises your premium for a reason materially related to wildfire risk, the notice they send you must describe:

"(a) What wildfire risk mitigation actions the insured could undertake, if any, that would result in a discount, incentive or other premium adjustment. (b) The amount of the potential discount, incentive or other premium adjustment."

The amount. In writing.

The same statute requires them to tell you which property-specific characteristics drove the decision, and — where a wildfire risk score was used — what the range of possible scores is, where yours falls, and what mitigation could do to it. Separately, ORS 737.310 requires every homeowner insurer in Oregon to publish on its website whether and how mitigation affects its underwriting and rates.

Two honest caveats, because the law is narrower than the headline.

It's a disclosure duty, not a discount mandate. Read the statute again and you'll find the words "if any." Oregon requires your insurer to tell you what mitigation would earn — including that it would earn nothing. A 2026 bill, SB 1540, would have required insurers using wildfire models to show regulators how those models account for mitigation, or else credit owners who do the work. It cleared its policy committee unanimously, stalled in Senate Rules without a floor vote, and died when the short session adjourned on March 6, 2026.

The trigger is narrow, and narrower than it first looks. The property-specific disclosures apply to a cancellation, non-renewal, or premium increase materially related to wildfire risk that isn't about nonpayment. But the disclosure of the amount attaches only to a premium increase — a non-renewal notice doesn't carry it. And a general rate increase doesn't trigger the statute at all.

Two more Oregon provisions worth keeping in your pocket. Under ORS 746.663, your insurer may generally only use "rating factors other than credit history or insurance score to rerate the policy at renewal" — in Oregon, subject to some narrow exceptions, credit doesn't move the rate on a policy you already hold. And ORS 746.661 gives you a re-rate you can request once a year. DFR tells consumers a credit re-rate may improve their costs or leave them unchanged, but won't hurt them. Very few people ask.

What We Actually Install That Shows Up in a Rating Plan

We'll be straight about where we fit.

We don't do defensible space, roofs, or vents. If wildfire hardening is your biggest exposure — and around Sisters, Tumalo, or Black Butte Ranch it probably is — call an arborist and a roofer before you call us. That's the honest order of operations, and telling you otherwise would be selling.

What we do install lands in the protective device column, and it's the column carriers describe most consistently:

Monitored intrusion detection. Farmers' wording — an outside signal and a connection to local police — describes central station monitoring, not an app notification. SecuraCore provides round-the-clock professional monitoring through our UL-listed monitoring center, and our central station notifies EMS, police or fire when needed. We also offer a self-monitoring option, which is a legitimate choice for plenty of properties. Just know that some filed credits require the signal to leave the house.

Monitored smoke and CO. A detector that only makes noise protects people who are home. A monitored one puts a call in when nobody is. Carriers list fire alarms first on nearly every protective device page — often ahead of burglary.

Water leak detection with automatic shutoff. PEMCO's language names water devices with automatic shutoff specifically. That's not incidental. Water is one of the most frequent and most expensive homeowners claims there is, and a valve that closes on its own while you're in Portland is the rare device that mitigates the loss instead of just reporting it. If you take one thing from this post as a second-home owner, take that one.

Smart water shut-off valve and leak sensor installed on a home water main in Central Oregon

And the paperwork. This is the piece people skip. Alarm.com's own guidance is that "monitoring certificates are provided by the monitoring station associated with your account," and to "contact your service provider" to get one. You can't download it yourself. We've written separately about what insurance-ready documentation looks like — a monitoring certificate and a system summary an underwriter can actually put in a file. A window sticker and a screenshot of your app aren't proof of anything.

Four Questions for Your Agent

Ask these in this order. It takes one phone call.

1. Is any part of my increase materially related to wildfire risk? If it is, ORS 742.277 entitles you to a written description of what mitigation would earn — and the amount. Ask for it in writing.

2. What protective device credit is filed on my policy, and what does it require? Not "do you offer one." What's filed, and what are the conditions — monitored versus local, central station versus self-monitored, which perils. Get the requirements before you buy equipment, not after.

3. Am I due a re-rate? Oregon gives you a consumer-requested re-rate once a year, and credit generally can't be used to raise your rate at renewal. DFR's own guidance is that it may help or change nothing, but won't hurt. It costs a phone call.

4. What would a higher deductible do — to my premium, and to me in a claim? The Insurance Information Institute's long-standing rule of thumb is that moving from a $500 to a $1,000 deductible "may save as much as 25 percent." That's undated trade-association guidance, so treat it as a question rather than a promise. And treat the answer as a trade rather than a saving: you're buying a lower premium with money you'd owe at the worst possible moment. Price both sides with your agent.

Agents: those four are the ones we'd want asked on any Central Oregon renewal, and especially on a second home that sits empty most of the year.

One Local Thing Nobody Mentions

If you're putting in a monitored system, know how your city handles false alarms. The two big ones here do it differently.

Bend's alarm registration is voluntary — city code directs the City to develop "a voluntary registration program." The false alarm response is not free, though. Fees start at the second false alarm in a 12-month period, in amounts set by Council resolution, and there's a whole code section devoted to appealing them. The part worth reading is subsection D: "After a third false alarm responded to by the Police Department, the City may, in its discretion, stop providing a police response to alarms from that alarm owner." Response can be reinstated with a mitigation plan, or proof the system was examined and repaired by a professional.

Redmond's permit is mandatory. Commercial and residential systems are required to be permitted by the Police Department — $40 initially, $10 to renew, expiring every three years. False alarms run $100 each for the second and $250 each for the third and beyond, and an unpermitted system can draw a service fee of up to $500 for each police response.

None of that shows up on an insurance quote. All of it shows up on a bill. A properly designed and commissioned system — correct sensor placement, sensible entry delays, an owner who's actually been trained on it — is what keeps you out of both columns.

What It Comes Down To

A monitored security system is worth buying. It isn't worth buying for the discount.

Buy it because a water valve closes at 2 a.m. while you're four hours away. Because a monitored smoke detector calls when the house is empty. Because someone answers at three in the morning. The credit on your declarations page is a nice line item, and it's the least interesting reason to do this.

Then go pull the bigger lever. Ask the wildfire question, get the number in writing, and do the mitigation work. That's where the real money is in Central Oregon right now — and on that question, Oregon law is already on your side.

Live in Bend, Sisters, Sunriver, Redmond, Tumalo, Black Butte Ranch or one of the other Central Oregon communities we serve? We'll design the system around your property and your real exposures — and we'll tell you honestly where an alarm helps and where it doesn't. Start a conversation, start your design online, or come see it working at our Technology Design Center in Bend.

Insurance agents: send us the protective device requirements your carrier actually files, and we'll design to them and put the as-built configuration in writing for your file. No obligation on your client.

More on monitored security and awareness systems, smoke, CO and water leak protection, and what happens to your footage when a claim arrives.

SecuraCore — Technology made simple. More Central Oregon security and smart home advice on our blog.

This is general information, not insurance, legal or claims advice. Discounts, eligibility and availability vary by carrier, policy form, property and state, and are determined by the insurer — not by us. Carrier language quoted here was read on the carriers' public pages in August 2026 and can change without notice; confirm anything you plan to rely on with your own agent. Oregon statutes are cited as of August 2026. The DFR wildfire emergency order described above runs through August 30, 2026 unless extended — check DFR's current bulletins for status and covered ZIP codes. Municipal alarm ordinances and fees are as published by the City of Bend and the City of Redmond and are subject to change.