State Farm will discontinue coverage for 72,000 houses and apartments in California starting this summer, the insurance giant said this week, nine months after announcing it would not issue new home policies in the state
The Illinois-based company, California’s largest insurer, cited soaring costs, the increasing risk of catastrophes like wildfires and outdated regulations as reasons it won’t renew the policies on 30,000 houses and 42,000 apartments, the Bay Area News Group reported Thursday.
Being forced to have home insurance is ridiculous. Private companies jack up prices, make all the rules, and come and go as they please. We need to figure out a better system!
The only one forcing people to have homeowners insurance is mortgage companies, that want to ensure the collateral on that mortgage doesn’t disappear.
That and common sense, as even if you don’t have a mortgage, you also don’t want a disaster to make your largest asset go poof.
There is competition. That is meant to keep prices lower. But insuring people in disaster prone areas just isn’t a wise business decision.
So we need to evacuate the entire East Coast and Gulf Coast (hurricanes), the Midwest (tornadoes), the West Coast (fires), and any city built next to a river? Really?
Those areas are not at all equivalent. Florida gets flattened by hurricanes every year. California is on fire every year. Other areas get disasters but not with nearly the same frequency.
Once you get a bit farther north than Florida huricanes are not an every year thing. Sure they still happen but not with nearly the frequency that they do along the gulf coast. The midwest gets tornados but outside of tornado alley they are a rare thing. Even in the areas where they are frequent the damage tends to be more localized when they hit than with huricanes or wild fires. As far as rivers go, they do flood but that is something that can be controlled. As someone who has lived along the coast of the Mississippi for their entire life I am very aware of all of the flood prevention work the army core of engineers has put into the area and it all works. Sure it’s still a risk if there is a dam failure or an especially heavy storm but that is a once every 50 year thing not a literally every year thing. If you are living in an area that floods every year and that risk can’t be mitigated then, yes, you should stop living there.
Sometimes a comment comes along that’s so full of bullshit it’s kind of impressive.
Climate change will be doing a lot of that, like it our not.
But at the very least, the rest of us shouldn’t have to subsidize it. I’m tired of my insurance in the Great Lakes region skyrocketing because of disasters in CA or the gulf coast.
Not (re)building in areas prone to wildfires, mudslides, floods, and the like would be a good start. Otherwise, someone has to pay to rebuild when the ever more frequent disaster hits. State farm and other insurers suck in many ways, but this isn’t unreasonable on their part.
Who is forced to have home insurance?
If you can afford a Californian mortgage, you can afford to leave the state and buy your house outright.
But some people think they’re “too good” for that, while they complain about not being able to afford where they currently are.
I feel like that requirement comes from mortgage lenders, not the government.
Exactly. I don’t think the government requires people to have home insurance.
I certainly don’t have it.
“just upend your entire life and everything you’ve worked for to move to some hellhole flatland state that mainly exists for late night TV jokes to be made about it, where everyone will hate you for your previous life you were forced to give up, because these same cornfed fuckwads want to live in the 1700s, and say you have to join them or they’ll burn crosses on your lawn”
K
die broke then.
What? Cheaper areas aren’t good enough for you?
Why should you get more before the people who live in those areas if you can’t afford it?
Answer: Entitlement.
So if I can’t afford to live where I do because my tax dollars support your flyover state that repeatedly wastes the money on corruption instead of helping peoplw, I need to leave the land I was born to join the untoothed masses? That’s the conservative way, isn’t it? “Oh, we ruined your progress, you should have to do it out way now.”
There’s nothing wrong with the land itself, just the people who live there who shaped their society.
If you can’t afford to live somewhere, then you have to go somewhere cheaper.
It’s part of supply and demand and you’re not exempt from it, despite how entitled you may feel.
You’re also stereotyping which shows your lack of experience outside of major cities. Most of your fear comes from what you do not know or understand.
Unfortunately, you are already too far gone. For you to make better financial decisions, you’d have to admit you’re wrong; and nobody wants to do that.
Good luck waiting for other people to solve your problems. I’m sure that will work out, eventually.
Sorry fella, you replied to your strawman version of me instead of the real thing.
Not really. I just said things you don’t like so you pretend they’re not relevant.
I see it all the time from people like you.
News flash, even if you own your home, you still may want insurance on it.
Keyword: forced
News flash, you need to brush up on your reading comprehension.
Brush up on YOUR reading comprehension. The only party requiring insurance is a mortgage lender, and you were suggesting moving to some shithole cheap enough to pay cash for a house. My point is, even if you own outright – shit, ESPECIALLY if you own outright – it’s probably a good idea.
I fucking hate insurance companies too, but you know what? My car was hit by an unlicensed driver less than 2 weeks ago and was totaled. I would be fucking SCREWED right now if I didn’t have car insurance. Instead I’m getting the car loan paid off and a check for the remaining $20k I can do whatever I want with. It’s gonna be to buy a new car, but I have the choice, instead of holding the bag of shit.
Dang.
I need to have a word with you English teachers.
Listen, I know you didn’t explicitly say “don’t pay for insurance, move somewhere cheap!”, but you absolutely implied it with your argument. Who is forced? Nobody, you’re right. But realistically, if you want to either:
A. Like where you live, or B. have even a fraction of financial safety
you must. Very very few people can afford to purchase a house with cash, especially now, and especially first-generation home buyers. That gives you a pretty unfortunate choice to make.
My main point is, your rhetoric shows that you think WE are the problem. That average Americans should give up the idea that we could live in a city where there is culture, diversity, good education, public transit, and god forbid modest housing options.