More Americans Are Losing Their Home Insurance
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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Here's your Money Briefing for Friday, July 7th. I'm J.R. Whelan for The Wall Street Journal. Due to storms, looming lawsuits and other factors, insurers are canceling homeowners' policies, leaving many Americans in a tough spot.
What’s driving the recent rise in homeowners being non‑renewed by insurers?
And this is just the beginning.
insurers face more losses. And we're hearing that this is going to become more of an issue as the year goes on and the years go on. Having home insurance may not necessarily be the easiest thing to get and may not be a given in certain places. Some insurers just don't want to be bothered.
We'll talk to WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger about what homeowners can do if their policies aren't renewed. That's after the break.
This episode is brought to you by Charles Schwab.
Which U.S. regions are seeing the most home‑insurance cancellations?
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More Americans are losing their home insurance coverage. WSJ personal finance reporter Veronica Dagger is here to discuss what homeowners can do to avoid non-renewal of their policy. So, Veronica, let's just start with the basics. What does home insurance typically cover?
A standard policy typically covers the cost of replacement of the home and some of its contents in the event of damage or theft. And in most cases, in most states, you'll need to have home insurance if you have a mortgage.
So why are some homeowners seeing their coverage not renewed?
How do homeowners find out and respond when they get a non‑renewal notice?
And where's this happening most often?
Damage from extreme weather, rising lawsuits in certain states, the soaring costs of rebuilding due to inflation has led some major insurance companies to stop renewing existing policies or issuing new ones. Homeowners in Florida, Louisiana, and California have been particularly hard hit. But there's areas across the country that are seeing it. I'm hearing people in New Jersey, Long Island, Texas, North Carolina also getting these non-renewal notices.
In your reporting, you spoke to some of these people. Were they taken by surprise?
It depends. So I spoke to a gentleman who lives not too far from Los Angeles. He got 30 days notice. In most cases, you need to either get 30 or 45 days notice that your policy is not being renewed so you can scramble to find someone else. But he lives right in an area that gets a lot of wildfires.
Can homeowners shop around or switch carriers after a non‑renewal?
And so he had heard some of his neighbors were getting non-renewed. And so he thought it might be coming, but... He was really disappointed to find out that he was, in fact, non-renewed. And he initially missed their letter telling him that it was not being renewed because he said it was a very nondescript letter. He thought it was some sort of junk mail. And then he opened it and it was like, oh, gosh, this is something I need to act on.
You mentioned that they could find somebody else. Could they shop around for another company?
You can try to shop around for sure. In his case, he was with farmers. They non-renewed him. And so then he went to State Farm. He was very lucky, though. His new neighbor had told him, hey, look, I was just insured by State Farm. Here's my contact. Try my insurance agent there. State Farm accepted him. But soon after that, State Farm actually pulled out of his area and is not renewing or writing new policies in his neighborhood. And so much of this is timing. You can shop around, but you have to do it quickly. If you get that non-renewal notice, you do not want to wait because this is such a fast-moving landscape right now.
What home upgrades reduce the risk of being dropped by insurers?
How common is this, insurance companies not renewing people's policies?
It's getting more and more common as more extreme weather takes hold. More events happen in nature that are wiping out people's houses. The insurers face more losses. And we're hearing that this is going to become more of an issue as the year goes on and the years go on. Having home insurance may not necessarily be the easiest thing to get and may not be a given in certain places.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:44
2
What’s driving the recent rise in homeowners being non‑renewed by insurers?
0:44–1:23
3
Which U.S. regions are seeing the most home‑insurance cancellations?
1:23–2:14
4
How do homeowners find out and respond when they get a non‑renewal notice?
2:14–3:04
5
Can homeowners shop around or switch carriers after a non‑renewal?
3:04–4:12
6
What home upgrades reduce the risk of being dropped by insurers?
4:12–5:31
7
What are the financial risks of living without home insurance?
5:31–7:18
8
When private coverage isn’t available, how can state fair‑plans help homeowners?
7:18–9:15
Speakers
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