That’s without accounting for the fact that California has some of the most expensive housing in the country.Ĭalifornia still has about 115 companies offering home insurance, said Michael Soller, a deputy commissioner for the state’s insurance department. Home insurance premiums in California are a little cheaper than the national average - and much lower than premiums in other disaster-prone states like Florida and Louisiana. “What insurance company would agree to that?” “It’s like you’ve got your steering wheel locked straight ahead, you’ve got your speed set on cruise control, and now you find yourself on the Pacific Coast Highway,” she said. She said the current regulatory system is too rigid. The companies are operating with “very crude tools” at the expense of availability and reliability, she said. The “crisis” in California’s insurance market was caused by “a laser focus only on affordability,” said Nancy Watkins, a principal at Milliman, an actuarial firm, at a legislative hearing on Wednesday.
When days later it was revealed that Allstate had quietly made the same decision last year, Californians are now left wondering: How bad is this? And how should the state respond?
After State Farm declared in late May that it wouldn’t sell any new home insurance policies in California, people shopping around for new insurance had one fewer option.
