great question, but also complicated question (and answer). will preface this by saying that we are in a high risk area (zoned residential forest). according to the insurance companies, high risk means one of two things - either a forested area that has had recent fire activity, or one that has not had fire activity in a long time (they get you coming and going
). when we bought, our only option was the CA Fair plan. very expensive. only option to bring down the premium is to have no mortgage (you can set your own deductible if you don’t have a mortgage - otherwise the lending bank sets it - and they usually require a significantly lower deductible - at least to where we were comfortable setting it).
that said - california recently passed a law that requires insurance companies to evaluate risk on a unique property basis - not a region basis (which is how it was historically done). presumably this will result in fire hardened properties (such as ours) experiencing reduced rates. it also may mean that more insurers will write policies in these areas rather than be grouped into the CA Fair plan (the plan is basically group insured - spreading the risk over a large number of participating insurance companies). one thing on the horizon for us is USAA has stepped in - and we qualify through my dad (ex-air force). don’t know yet what this will mean for us premium-wise, but am pursuing it with them.
so bottom line - it can be expensive, but manageable. it’s a pay to play sortofa thing IMO, but definitely check before pulling the trigger on a property though.
