Climate Shocks Are Making Parts of America Uninsurable. It Just Got Worse.

Christopher Flavelle, Jill Cowan and Ivan Penn / The New York Times

A firefighter tried to save a home in Meyers, California, in 2021. (photo: Max Whittaker/The New York Times)

31 May 23

The largest insurer in California said it would stop offering new coverage. It’s part of a broader trend of companies pulling back from dangerous areas.

The climate crisis is becoming a financial crisis.

This month, the largest homeowner insurance company in California, State Farm, announced that it would stop selling coverage to homeowners. That’s not just in wildfire zones, but everywhere in the state.

Insurance companies, tired of losing money, are raising rates, restricting coverage or pulling out of some areas altogether — making it more expensive for people to live in their homes.

“Risk has a price,” said Roy Wright, the former official in charge of insurance at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and now head of the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety, a research group. “We’re just now seeing it.”

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