Most homeowners think about the value of their home in two ways.
We pay close attention to the selling prices of our neighbors' homes and dream about what we'd get for our own. And we protest tax bills when we think the city, county or school district overestimates our home and land values. But too few of us keep up with a third way to measure a home's worth that can be higher than its market value and more costly than a tax bill. In insurance lingo, this estimation is known as the replacement cost, and it's as important an assessment of your home's worth as real estate prices and tax appraisals are. Unfortunately, many of us buy homeowner's insurance in a rush.