California is the hardest homeowners market in the country and the one changing fastest. We work this market every day, and the short version is this: if you were dropped or pushed onto the FAIR Plan in the last few years, your options today are better than the ones you had then.
The withdrawal years did real damage. State Farm General stopped writing new homeowners business and non-renewed a large block of existing policies; Allstate paused new business. Homeowners with nowhere else to go landed on the California FAIR Plan, which has grown past 668,000 policies and filed for a substantial rate increase.
What has changed is the return. Under the state's Sustainable Insurance Strategy, carriers that commit to writing in wildfire-distressed areas can use forward-looking catastrophe models and reinsurance costs in their rate filings. Mercury took the first approval and committed to tens of thousands of new policies including wildfire areas. CSAA is running FAIR Plan depopulation. Farmers removed its monthly policy cap. Travelers joined in April 2026.
The practical consequence: a homeowner who was declined in 2023 or 2024 may be perfectly writable in the standard market today, and will never be told so unless someone re-shops the file.
Market conditions as of September 2026. Carrier appetite in California changes frequently — ask us what is true this week.
The California FAIR Plan is a fire-only policy. It does not include liability, theft, or water damage, which is why it has to be paired with a difference-in-conditions wrap to approximate real homeowners coverage.
It has grown past 668,000 policies and has filed for a significant rate increase. Meanwhile depopulation programs are actively moving policyholders back into the admitted market. If you are on the FAIR Plan today, you are on the most expensive and narrowest coverage available, and you may no longer need to be.
Send us the declarations page you have now. Carriers move in and out of a state without telling the people already in it, so what was the best available policy two years ago often is not today.
Send your policyPersonal and commercial lines, shopped across the carriers appointed where you are. If you hold more than one of these, there is usually something to find in how they fit together.
Send us your declarations page and we will tell you what you actually have, what it would pay, and whether anything worth changing has changed in this market.
Independent insurance guidance for your home, your business, and your life across state lines.