Several factors have converged to make adequate, reasonably priced home insurance harder to get. Some have to move because they can't pay to repair their homes, or else they suffer long-term damage to their finances.
And families who don't have adequate home insurance often struggle after disasters. If people can't get insurance, they can't get mortgages. Nationwide, millions of homeowners are having to find different kinds of coverage, which typically come at a higher price with less protection. Earlier this month, the insurance arm of AAA announced it would not renew some "higher exposure" home insurance policies in Florida, and Farmers Insurance announced it will stop offering new home insurance policies in the state and won't renew thousands of existing ones, in part because of rising losses from hurricanes.īloomberg via Getty Images A structure burns during the Oak Fire in Mariposa County last July. Insurance companies in states like Colorado, Louisiana and Florida are paring down business to shield themselves from ballooning losses as climate change fuels more-intense disasters. Homeowners like Pratt are finding out that their longtime insurers have decided not to renew coverage.Ĭalifornia isn't alone. Over the past two years, several big insurers, including Allstate and State Farm, have scaled back their home insurance businesses in California to avoid paying billions for wildfire damage, or have halted sales of new policies altogether. Pratt, like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners in California, now faces the state's growing climate threats with a weaker safety net. Despite this, her insurance carrier dropped her because of wildfire risk. Pratt added a metal roof, traded wood decking for laminate, installed a water tank and a fire hose, and cleared vegetation near the house to make it fire resistant. Beth Pratt Beth Pratt stands outside her home near Yosemite National Park.
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