State Farm indicates where in California homeowner’s policies won’t be renewed – NBC Bay Area

State Farm, California’s largest home insurance provider, has outlined areas in which it will not renew its policies, and some Bay Area residents are affected, according to a report from the San Francisco Chronicle.

According to information obtained by the newspaper, State Farm will not renew 1,703 insurance policies in Orinda’s 94563 ZIP code, which accounts for 55 percent of the city’s homeowners’ insurance policies. This is the highest number of non-renewals for any ZIP code in the state. The second highest level is in Los Angeles.

According to the report, other Bay Area ZIP codes affected are 94549 in Contra Costa County, 95033 in Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties, and 95404 and 95409 in Sonoma County.

Last month, State Farm issued a written statement explaining its decision to no longer write new policies for new California homes and to terminate coverage for approximately 50,000 existing California customers.

“This decision was not made lightly, and only after careful analysis of the financial health of State Farm, which continues to be affected by inflation, catastrophe exposure, reinsurance costs and limitations of working under decades-old insurance regulations,” the statement said.

Homeowners who live in areas at high risk of disasters like wildfires will need to join the state-subsidized California FAIR plan. It’s expensive and only offers fire coverage.

Last month, a nonprofit research group said insurers were losing money because of premium limits in California and that for every dollar insurance companies receive in premiums in the state, 1 $.08 was spent to pay claims, primarily due to wildfires.

The Insurance Information Institute says the California Department of Insurance is updating regulations that could bring more competitively priced policy options to the state.

“To enable insurers to better manage risk, this would mean being able to charge what are commonly called actuarially sound rates – which is not the case today,” said Mark Friedlander from the Insurance Information Institute.

Friedlander says it could take a few years for California’s home insurance industry to stabilize, even after the new laws are enacted.