If you talk to a homeowner in any state, they’ll let you know that their insurance premiums have gone up dramatically in the short time that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been in charge. In some states, premiums have skyrocketed by as much as 400%. The situation in California is so bad that one of the state’s largest insurers may soon have to leave entirely. State Farm says that unless it raises its homeowner insurance rates by 52%, the fund that it uses to cover California claims will go broke sometime in 2028.
The company adds that if a bunch of homes are destroyed in another one of the wildfires from California’s mismanaged forests, it will likely bankrupt the fund. State Farm currently insures 3.1 million homes in the state. It’s been involved in a standoff for several months with the California Department of Insurance over the issue. The department has the final say on whether insurance companies are allowed to raise rates or not.
State Farm has now given the Department of Insurance an ultimatum. Either let the company raise rates in California or it will suspend all homeowners insurance completely. Considering that State Farm underwrites more than 20% of all homeowner policies in California, this would be another massive Democrat-induced reason to not live there.
Californians won’t simply be able to move to another supplier since other insurance companies are making similar moves. Allstate and Farmers Direct both limited coverage in the state last year. State Farm stopped issuing new homeowner policies in May as part of its fight with the state. Over the summer, the company refused to renew tens of thousands of policies for customers.
The Democrats running the legislature in California, along with their inept Gov. Gavin News (D), blame all the wildfires in the state on global warming. State Farm knows this is BS. California is notorious for mismanaging its forests and other natural resources. Most wildfires are caused by arsonists, followed by people being irresponsible with campfires during the summer months.
California has a housing shortage that is driven by mass immigration gobbling up the housing supply. Onerous environmental rules delay new housing build projects for far too long, so the new supply can’t catch up with the influx of illegal aliens. It recently took the City of Los Angeles eight years to build a new walking trail because of environmental impact surveys and permitting. It wasn’t even a paved walking path. It was a dirt trail. Imagine how long it takes to build a new apartment complex in that environment.
Local governments have also been overvaluing properties to collect more tax revenues. The bloated price of homes makes them too costly to insure for the same amount of money.
In 2024, the median home price in California is nearly $1 million. It costs around $382 a month to insure a home for full value. State Farm says it will have to raise that to $574 a month to avoid its California fund going bankrupt—and that’s assuming there are no more catastrophic wildfires that burn several neighborhoods down.
The Department of Insurance is now assessing State Farm’s net worth to determine whether to grant it a policy price increase. If the increase is approved, the soonest it will hit homeowners is sometime in 2025. If the increase is not approved, millions of California homeowners may find themselves unable to obtain insurance at all next year.