California’s home insurance plan of last resort is set to increase rates for policyholders later this year.
California FAIR Plan announced an average 30% rate increase for policyholders, according to multiple reports.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported that rates, which are set to change after Oct. 15, will vary depending on customers’ circumstances, with about a quarter of policyholders having their rates decrease by up to 80% and half of homeowners seeing rate increases between 30% and 50%.
Wildfire-prone areas will see the largest rate increases, according to Beinsure, with those in parts of the Sierra Nevada foothills looking at a rate double to what they pay now.
The FAIR Plan was originally designed as a temporary safety net, but enrollment has surged roughly 400% since 2018.
Increasingly severe climate disasters cause private insurers to withdraw coverage, resulting in some premiums skyrocketing by more than 350% from 2018 to 2025, according to the Insurance Fairness Project.
A report by the National Resources Defense Council stated that millions of homeowners across the United States are being denied or priced out of property insurance coverage, with an estimated 7 percent to 13 percent of all homes in the country uninsured.
Moreover, the report continued, since 2020 1.2 million property owners who were dropped by their insurance companies have had to secure higher-priced, less comprehensive insurance coverage from state-created insurers of last resort.
As of March 2026, the FAIR Plan had 684,388 active policyholders, a 6% increase since September 2025 and a 152% increase since September 2022, according to the California Fair Plan.
“The FAIR Plan is designed to be a last resort — not the backbone of the state’s entire insurance market,” said TJ Helmstetter, a spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “So we now have a spiraling crisis: Californians are paying more every year and getting less protection, while extreme weather events become more frequent and cause more destruction. We need our political leaders to understand how this fits into the bigger picture on affordability and housing. We need long-term, structural reforms that match the severity of the crisis.”
This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: California FAIR Plan set to increase rates for most policyholders
Reporting by Roseann Cattani, Salinas Californian / Salinas Californian
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
