January 23, 2025
Bloomberg
Even before the terrible wildfires in Los Angeles County have been quelled, the dead mourned and evacuees sheltered, California leaders are taking steps to accelerate rebuilding. It’s natural to want to restore what was lost in such a tragedy as quickly as possible. But obscuring the true costs will only exacerbate future climate-fueled natural disasters. It’s not […]
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2025
Pasadena Star-News
The devastation of the fires in Los Angeles has been hard to fathom. Thousands have lost their homes, priceless personal items, memories, and in some cases the very neighborhoods where they lived most of their lives. Some have even lost their lives. And in the aftermath, we will be left with a problem that will […]
Read MoreNovember 15, 2024
Ventura County Star
In mid-October, three weeks before a disaster struck the heart of Ventura County with the speed of a roaring wind, a town hall meeting was held in Thousand Oaks to discuss what everyone knew was an ongoing crisis — the availability of fire insurance for California homeowners. The Mountain Fire has again underscored why a […]
Read MoreOctober 1, 2024
Capitol Weekly
California’s homeowners insurance crisis is making it more difficult to build and buy affordable homes — and in some cases impossible. By restricting the supply of housing, particularly condominiums and multi-family housing, lack of insurance availability is driving up consumer housing costs and limiting the lowest priced homeownership option for consumers. Home builders were reassured […]
Read MoreJuly 29, 2024
San Jose Mercury News
As California grapples with another season of wildfires, the impact on the state’s insurance market has become increasingly dire. The reasons are numerous and complex: the rise in wildfires and extreme weather, high construction costs driven by inflation, high costs of capital, legal system abuse, and longstanding regulatory impediments. Homeowners are understandably weary of seeing […]
Read MoreJuly 12, 2024
Mountain Democrat
State Farm Insurance recently filed for rate increases with the California Department of Insurance. The company is seeking a 30% rate increase for most homeowners, a 36% increase for condominium owners and a 52% increase for renters. State Farm has the largest number of homeowner policies, followed by Liberty Mutual, Farmers, Nationwide and USAA. The […]
Read MoreJune 28, 2024
San Diego Union Tribune
Californians are feeling the pain of a homeowners insurance crisis that has made coverage increasingly difficult to find. Those who live in condominiums and who have homeowners associations are feeling that pain twice – to a degree so severe that it is squeezing their ability to stay in their homes. Every day I hear a […]
Read MoreMay 20, 2024
Southern California News Group
Amid an insurance crisis that pushed property insurers to exit California’s market, Gov. Gavin Newsom penned an executive order that “urges Insurance Commissioner (Ricardo) Lara to take swift action to address issues with the insurance market and expand coverage options for consumers.” Well, the words “swift action” apparently don’t mean the same thing to the state Department […]
Read MoreMarch 1, 2024
San Francisco Chronicle
As the executive director of Habitat for Humanity California, I’ve watched my colleagues learn through experience how to manage the many challenges of building affordable housing in California — from fighting red tape to securing permits to accessing limited government and charitable funds. Using the expertise, our 33 Habitat affiliates across the state build and repair […]
Read MoreFebruary 18, 2024
The Press Democrat
During the past two decades, an increasing number of catastrophic wildfires and other climate change-related disasters have ravaged California. Yet even with this perennial threat, the state has allowed an outdated regulatory system to paralyze the insurance market — creating a coverage crisis that makes it impossible for a growing number of Californians to protect […]
Read MoreJanuary 22, 2024
Insurance isn’t fun or interesting or even easy to understand, but it is essential. And now it’s at risk. We don’t have a robust insurance market in California. It’s quite the opposite: More than five years of destructive, climate-driven wildfires have triggered billions of dollars in claims, causing insurers to leave in droves. Those that […]
Read MoreDecember 18, 2023
Santa Cruz Sentenial
With spiraling housing costs, hikes in PG&E monthly bills, higher taxes, and inflationary food costs, as beautiful as it is here, it’s a wonder more people aren’t fleeing here for more affordable climes. Insurance is another in the list of cost-of-living outrages. Auto insurance policies are getting harder to find and more expensive in California […]
Read MoreDecember 17, 2023
The Sacramento Bee
When you’re the mayor of a small town, your neighbors aren’t shy about telling you what’s troubling them. When something is shaking their sense of well-being, they let you know. California’s insurance crisis has been top of mind for Placerville residents. I hear about it nearly every day. Retired homeowners’ security is at risk because […]
Read MoreNovember 26, 2023
Southern California News Group
California is in the throes of an insurance crisis after the state’s largest insurer, State Farm, and then some other companies announced they no longer are writing new policies here. This comes after years of growing wildfire-related losses. State officials blame climate change, but it’s a problem mainly caused by government regulation. Simply put, 1988’s […]
Read MoreNovember 11, 2023
San Francisco Chronicle
Wednesday marked five years since the devastating Camp Fire ripped through the Butte County town of Paradise, killing 85 people, destroying 11,000 homes and spurring an exodus of two-thirds of the population. Although California’s fire season was relatively calm this year due to a historically wet winter, the lingering impact of Paradise — along with skyrocketing […]
Read MoreOctober 31, 2023
San Francisco Chronicle
Four small insurers plan to nonrenew California home policies starting in 2024. The four companies — Merastar Insurance Company, Unitrin Auto and Home Insurance Company, Unitrin Direct Property and Casualty Company, and Kemper Independence Insurance Company — each cited a nationwide restructuring decision from their parent company Kemper Corporation, according to a document filed jointly this month with the […]
Read MoreOctober 12, 2023
San Fransisco Standard
Another insurance company will exit California just weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom called for regulatory action to ameliorate the state’s ongoing homeowners insurance availability crisis. CSE Insurance Group ceased selling policies on Monday and will begin dropping its current policies when they come up for renewal, according to two company communications that sources in the […]
Read MoreSeptember 12, 2023
Politico
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged California’s growing wildfire insurance problem Tuesday after lawmakers failed this week to reach a deal to shore up the market. He called the retreat of home insurers amid rising climate disaster costs a “waving red flag” and compared California to Florida, where Gov. Ron DeSantis is also grappling […]
Read MoreJuly 21, 2023
New York Times
As different as California and Florida are, they share one big problem: Insurance companies are curtailing business in the two states. Some aren’t writing new policies. Others are going further and not renewing policies as they expire. I’m picturing vans pulling out of Sacramento or Tallahassee filled with sad-looking insurance mascots. Geico’s gecko. Jake from […]
Read MoreJuly 10, 2023
The North Bay Business Journal
Californians now have even fewer insurance carriers to choose from, following a recent announcement from Farmers Insurance. The company stated it saw a spike in applications for homeowners insurance and as a result will be limiting the number of new homeowners policies in the state, effective July 3. State Farm and Allstate had already announced […]
Read MoreJune 27, 2023
The Washington Post
In California, State Farm and Allstate recently stopped selling new home insurance policies after years of catastrophic wildfires. In Louisiana, at least seven insurance companies have failed since Hurricane Ida. And in Florida, most big insurance companies have already pulled out of the storm-battered state. In these disaster-prone states, the climate crisis is fueling an insurance crisis, leaving homeowners struggling to find affordable coverage. Yet […]
Read MoreJune 21, 2023
NPR
As climate change gets worse, California is seeing larger and more dangerous wildfires. And in response some insurers are leaving the state behind, finding the growing risk too high to pay. Host Ailsa Chang talks with Michael Wara, who directs a climate and energy policy program at Stanford, about the financial calculus insurers are making […]
Read MoreJune 20, 2023
San Fransisco Chronicle
It’s not just home insurance. Auto insurance is also increasingly hard to get in California, according to insurance agents who say they are struggling to find quotes for clients who would have easily gotten insurance just a year ago, as inflation and other factors take a toll. “The withering availability of auto and home insurance in […]
Read MoreJune 5, 2023
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two insurance industry giants have pulled back from California’s home insurance marketplace, saying that increasing wildfire risk and soaring construction costs have prompted them to stop writing new policies in the nation’s most populous state. State Farm announced last week it would stop accepting applications for all business and personal lines […]
Read MoreAugust 29, 2022
San Jose Mercury News
Almost a year to the day after evacuating during the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fires in August 2020, Judy Osborn learned she’d been dropped by her home insurance company. Her two-bedroom house in the Santa Cruz Mountains had become too risky to cover, her provider explained, and Osborn was left to seek out a new policy in […]
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