It’s another blow to the pockets of thousands of homeowners across California.
The California Department of Insurance gave Allstate the green light to raise its home insurance rate by an average of 34% — the state's highest in the last three years. Many homeowners are trying their best to adjust.
“The insurance industry has just gone crazy, and it keeps going up and up," Harbison Canyon resident Karen Rout said. “I feel ripped off."
Homeowners' pockets have been feeling the pinch across the Golden State. Rout, who used to work in the insurance industry, said, “It's beyond ridiculous.”
These changes follow several rate increase requests from other major insurers in the last year, like State Farm, which received approval earlier this year from the department for a 20% increase.
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From inflation to high fire zones across the state, longtime San Diego real estate agent Sean Zanganeh says, this is a trend that many residents and future homebuyers can expect.
“I think what people have to realize is the values of homes have increased a lot," Zanganeh said. "The cost of the home has increased so much. I think we'll continue to see increases throughout California, specifically San Diego, just due to the nature where we're at with high home prices as well as being in a higher fire zone across [the county]."
These new insurance premiums will impact more than 350,000 homeowners. They're having ripple effects not only on current homeowners trying to adjust but also on first-time buyers.
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"One of the most common things we're seeing is a lot of buyers don't know what insurance costs until they get into escrow to buy a home, says Zanganeh. "And then they get hit with these numbers that are two, three and sometimes four times more than they were expecting. So I see a lot of people, they'll go into contract and then almost second guess themselves when they find out what the real cost is of owning that particular home."
In the meantime, current policyholders can expect an increase in their bills at their first renewal date following Nov. 7.
This article was originally published by Tali Letoi at Scripps News San Diego.
