Climate change is impacting the home insurance industry and damaging the housing market
Climate change is impacting the home insurance industry and damaging the housing market

When Michael Monaghan, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Sellers Realty in northern California, got an offer for a home in Bayside at the seller’s $650,000 list price in September, he told the buyer’s agent that the buyer needed to start looking for insurance…
10th Circuit rules Black Hawk casino’s insurance policy did not cover COVID-19 closure
10th Circuit rules Black Hawk casino’s insurance policy did not cover COVID-19 closure

The Colorado Supreme Court and the 10th Circuit have both found COVID-19 harms people, but does not damage property The federal appeals court based in Denver decided last week that a Black Hawk casino’s insurance policy, with limited exception, did not provide for hundreds of…
Climate change is impacting the home insurance industry and damaging the housing market
Climate change is impacting the home insurance industry and damaging the housing market

When Michael Monaghan, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker Sellers Realty in northern California, got an offer for a home in Bayside at the seller’s $650,000 list price in September, he told the buyer’s agent that the buyer needed to start looking for insurance…
Here’s why insurance companies want to raise rates in California
Here’s why insurance companies want to raise rates in California

Climate change and inflation are fueling problems for the California home insurance industry. Bay Area Congressman John Garamendi served as California’s very first insurance commissioner. “The insurance companies are pulling out, pulling policies,” Garamendi said. “They’re raising rates in many cases without justification.” Garamendi claimed…
Biden wades into home insurance mess
Biden wades into home insurance mess

Climate change may be forcing millions of Americans to go without home insurance, as unpredictable weather and intensifying disasters prompt major underwriters to flee hard-hit neighborhoods. In response, the Biden administration is asking top insurance companies — for the first time — to provide detailed,…
Sunday’s Letters to the Editor
Sunday’s Letters to the Editor

Insurance market EDITOR: Amy Bach writes that insurance companies are probably overreacting to the Glass Fire, Tubbs Fire, etc. in terms of fire insurance rates (“Crisis rooted in climate change and big profits,” Oct. 29). I do know that according to my insurance broker, fire…
Insurers face wave of inquiries over climate risks
Insurers face wave of inquiries over climate risks

The nation’s property insurance industry is coming under unprecedented scrutiny with the launch of three inquiries into how climate change is causing premiums to soar and pushing insurers to withdraw from at-risk regions. The moves by the Treasury Department, two U.S. senators and a national…
Calfire Wildfire Prevention Grants: Open 11/1/23-1/10/24
Calfire Wildfire Prevention Grants: Open 11/1/23-1/10/24

Statewide Grant Alert:  Calfire Wildfire Prevention Grants: Open 11/1/23-1/10/24 Funds for projects in and near fire threatened communities to improve public health and safety while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  Learn more here: https://www.fire.ca.gov/what-we-do/grants/wildfire-prevention-grants Thank you to Chief Berlant for sharing this opportunity with our WRAP working…
Spooky Insurance News
Spooky Insurance News

There’s lots being said these days about the negative impact on home and business owners of reduced competition and coverage and sharply rising premiums resulting from insurers’ reactions to climate change, technology and inflation. The marketplace dynamics and political forces in play in Florida, Louisiana…
Close to Home: Insurance crisis rooted in climate change, big profits
Close to Home: Insurance crisis rooted in climate change, big profits

Press Democrat Op Ed, by: Amy Bach In the North Bay today, and many other areas considered to be at risk for wildfires, we are in the grip of a serious property insurance availability and affordability crisis. Until fairly recently, most North Bay residents didn’t…
Insurance Access Emergency Hits Close To Home
Insurance Access Emergency Hits Close To Home

Across California, the cost of homeowners insurance is further fueling housing unaffordability. While many city households in California may still enjoy some of the lowest homeowners insurance rates in the nation, the astronomical insurance cost increases for residents, businesses and even public service agencies like…
Calif. annuity legislation must pass by 2025 to avoid ‘dual regulation’
Calif. annuity legislation must pass by 2025 to avoid ‘dual regulation’

California Senate Bill 263, which would make California the 41st state to adopt best-interest annuity sales rules, has stalled amid pushback from consumer groups. It is currently in the suspense file with the Assembly Appropriations Committee, and five consumer associations want it to stay that…
California Insurance Crisis: ‘Insurer of Last Resort’ Gets ‘Astronomical’ 1,000 Applications a Day
California Insurance Crisis: ‘Insurer of Last Resort’ Gets ‘Astronomical’ 1,000 Applications a Day

As a string of major insurers have pulled out of California or restricted business in the state, more and more homeowners have been forced to seek coverage from the California FAIR Plan, a fire insurer for high-risk properties. Last month, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said…
Insurance Crisis: Bay Area Insurance Company That Left California Leaves Arizona, Nevada
Insurance Crisis: Bay Area Insurance Company That Left California Leaves Arizona, Nevada

When CSE Insurance announced to its agents earlier this month that it was pulling out of California and would not be renewing its customers’ policies, the company was the latest in a long list of insurers exiting the state. Now, The Standard can report that…
Survivors Speak: Ten Days in Lahaina
Survivors Speak: Ten Days in Lahaina

Driving along the idyllic West Maui coast on a characteristically stunning day in early September, all looked as beautiful as ever. As I crested the hill on the south of end of Lahaina, John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ was playing on the radio. And I began to…
Is the lack of flood insurance coverage the next coverage crisis for California?
Is the lack of flood insurance coverage the next coverage crisis for California?

Thousands of homes may be at risk of flooding, but few are covered against this type of catastrophe. Though we tend to think of wildfires as the main risk to property owners in California, climate change and a majority of homes without flood insurance could…
Could flooding fuel CA’s next insurance crisis? What data shows for thousands of Bay Area homes
Could flooding fuel CA’s next insurance crisis? What data shows for thousands of Bay Area homes

Climate change is predicted to drive increasing sea level rise across the country in the coming decades — and thousands of families in the Bay Area are unprepared for the flooding impacts. The ABC7 data journalism team analyzed data from the First Street Foundation, a…
Homeowners Flock to Last-Resort Insurance Policies
Homeowners Flock to Last-Resort Insurance Policies

Robert Dubie was paying around $1,100 a year to insure his Paradise, Calif., home before it burned down in a wildfire five years ago. He rebuilt it with a host of fire protections, but it costs 10 times as much to insure. He couldn’t get…