Wildfire risk in California leaves many without home insurance; unclear whether trend will spread to other states

2020 wildfire risk map from Wildfirerisk.org; click the image to enlarge it or click here for the interactive version. 

After years of costly wildfires, homeowners' insurance in California has become more expensive, less comprehensive, and harder to get, report Katherine Chiglinsky and Elaine Chen of Bloomberg. More insurers are dropping clients and/or refusing to insure new policies in higher-risk areas. 

In October, California’s insurance regulator reported that insurers refused to renew 235,250 home insurance policies in 2019, a 31 percent increase from the prior year. In ZIP codes that had a moderate to very high fire risk, non-renewals jumped 61%, Chiglinsky and Chen report. "The deepening insurance crisis underscores how that market is trying to grapple with a risk that’s escalated in recent years, driven by what the California governor has deemed a climate emergency. Insurers say they can no longer shoulder the losses at current prices, so they’re seeking to raise rates for some homeowners. But insurers have also been dropping homeowners, refusing to renew policies in high-risk areas for fears that the losses would continue to pile up no matter how much they charge."

The trend leads many homeowners with no choice but to purchase pricey back-up options or move to more affordable (but still high-risk) rural areas, Chiglinsky and Chen report.