Paradise wildfire rebuild sees insurance premiums soar to near $10,000

After the fire, she got divorced, which left her with only half the money paid out by insurance — but she budgeted, planned ahead and even paid extra for stucco siding and a metal roof to make her new house more resistant to fire. She thought the hard part was over. So the office manager was stunned to learn nearly four years living in the same home, this month the annual premium on her home insurance would rise dramatically — from $1,200 to $9,750.

“To see we’ve come so far, only to have the legs kicked out from under us,” she said. “This is so crazy to me. How is this the biggest thing we’re dealing with?”

The soaring cost of home insurance has consumed the town of Paradise, residents and officials say, as it prepares to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Nov. 8, 2018, Camp Fire. Residents have received annual premiums that near or exceed $10,000 — leaving many to wonder how they’re supposed to rebuild their hard-hit community when insurance is so shockingly high for houses in an area that is supposed to be among the most affordable in California.

The wildfire that ripped through Paradise and surrounding areas, killing 85, sounded an alarm to national home insurers about the costs of wildfires fueled by climate change. Seven of the 12 top home-insurers in California — including Farmers Insurance, State Farm, Allstate — have paused or restricted new business in California, saying they can’t afford to take on new clients.

California’s Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara is trying to step in to reform the system and to make the private market more robust, but the bulk of the changes won’t take effect for at least another year.

Neither the state Insurance Department nor a major industry lobbying group could explain the sharp price increases…