FRESNO, Calif. (FOX26) — Home insurance rates are skyrocketing again.
According to Insurify, a group that compares insurance rates, rates in the U.S. have gone up6%justthis year alone, after a nearly 20% increase in the last two years.
Homeowners are now complaining it’s getting harder and harder to keep your home.
“Other people that are retired like myself are going to wind up having to go take a second job or another job,” said Homeowner and Landlord Victor Mendoza.
That’s partly because the cost of home insurance keeps skyrocketing.
In California, it’s expected to rise a total of 8% by year’s end.
That now has landlords like Mendoza questioning why.
“Ok, everything is up to code. Everything is, is hunky dory. They all have their smoke detectors. They all up to California code and the city codes,” he said. “Most of my homes, I’ve provided fire extinguishers. What more can I do to prevent it to lower my policies?”
Most of the major insurance companies like Allstate, State Farm, and Liberty Mutual have either pulled out of California’s home insurance market or are dropping policies.
In a statement in March, State Farm said the decision was made “after careful analysis of State Farm General’s financial health, which continues to be impacted by inflation, catastrophe exposure, reinsurance costs, and the limitations of working within decades-old insurance regulations.”
Their excuse is one because of the fires in the forest. Well, I don’t live in the forest, and two is because the property taxes the properties, values, and homes in California have risen so much, it’s not worth it for them to write policies,” said Mendoza.
He said he’s now limited to a small group of insurance companies charging what he calls an arm and a leg to cover a home in California.
“That’s really unfortunate because with everything else going up,” said Mendoza. “Your PG&E is going up, your insurance is going up, our property tax is going up, your homeowners payments are going up.”
He said at this rate, homeowners aren’t living the way they imagined.
“That means cutting back or even having to sell your property,” said Mendoza.
Mendoza said he and his neighbors called the California commissioner’s office to complain about insurance in the state and never heard back.
FOX26 reached out to California Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s office, asking why rates keep skyrocketing.
A spokesperson for the commissioner sent us a statement saying:
Commissioner Lara’s Sustainable Insurance Strategy is addressing decades-long neglected issues and outdated regulations which have led to the insurance crisis many Californians are facing. Climate change impacts are accelerating, and the Department is taking actions that will expand insurance availability over the next 10 years. Our goal is to create a modern, sustainable insurance market that incentivizes safety and reduces risks. It does not retreat from high-risk areas but instead utilizes a long-term strategy to continue providing coverage to consumers. We are doing this by streamlining the rate application process, introducing risk management tools such as catastrophe modeling and net cost of reinsurance, with a commitment from insurance companies to write new and expanded coverage in more areas of our state, especially in wildfire distressed areas, and strengthening the FAIR Plan.
