Wildfires Threaten to Make Home Insurance Unaffordable
- Insurers dropping homeowners, started even before 2017 blazes
- ‘These are issues that all states and Americans are facing’
A firefighter pulls a hose line while working to save homes during the Skirball Fire in the Bel Air neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, on Dec. 6, 2017.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
More frequent and intense wildfires are making it harder for homeowners to find and keep insurance in California, a state regulator warned Thursday.
"The problem of insurance availability is going to expand" after last year’s record-breaking wildfires, California Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said in an interview Thursday. He said growing rates of non-renewal and rate increases for people in wildfire zones are "entering a critical stage."