3 More Home Insurance Companies Leave California

According to Yahoo! Finance, three more home insurance companies have added themselves to the ever-growing list of providers that will not be renewing policies for homeowners in California in 2024.

The news follows the 2022 and 2023 decisions of several other insurance companies to not offer new homeowners policies within the state, including Allstate, State Farm, and, most recently, Kemper, as reported in September by Cleanfax. The newest companies deciding to not renew policies are Merastar Insurance Company, Unitrin Auto and Home Insurance Company, and Unitrin Direct Property and Casualty Company.

For many of the companies, the decisions are based on recent extreme environmental events such as wildfires, including the assumption that such events will become more frequent. According to a recent Fortune article, since the 1980s, the United States had averaged about eight major weather events a year that caused at least $1 billion in damage. But in the past five years, that average jumped up to 18. So far this year, 23 such events have taken place.