California homeowners receiving their home insurance renewals are seeing higher rates across the board. Policyholders are demanding answers to why their home insurance rates are increasing and what they can do about it going forward.

Record Breaking Inflation Causing Higher Home Insurance Rates

Living our daily lives in California, we can see the effects inflation is having on us and our families. From going to the grocery store all the way to rebuilding a home; goods, materials, and services are coming at a much higher cost.

When prices for materials needed to rebuild or repair your home become more expensive so does the total cost to repair or replace it. Having these higher rebuild and repair costs for homes not only lead to higher claim payouts for the insurance companies, but this also means that the policyholders need higher coverages. Higher coverages mean more in insurance premiums and higher claim payouts also lead to higher insurance premiums.

Skilled Labor Shortage

To add to the inflationary costs, there is also a skilled labor shortage. Framing crews, carpenters, roofers, plumbers, electricians, and concrete workers are all experiencing some sort of worker shortage. When you mix high building material costs and a shortage of skilled trade workers, it makes the perfect storm for a very costly rebuild or repair! Again, higher claims higher premiums, and higher costs higher coverages, all resulting in higher home insurance rates!

Wildfire Risk

Whether your home is located in a high-risk wildfire area or not, this is also a contributing factor to why your home insurance rates are going up. After all the losses the insurance companies endured from the wildfires in the last couple of years, it has caused rates to go up to offset the number of losses. If your home is located in an alleged high wildfire area or high brush exposure, you can expect an even higher insurance premium than someone who does not. The higher the risk, the higher the premium.

What Can You Do About Your Home Insurance Rates?

As home insurance premiums are on the rise, there are some ways you can get the cost down. The first would be to find a good insurance broker. A good insurance broker, like us, will be able to review your insurance premiums and shop out the market with a bunch of different companies to see if there is anything out there more competitive.

Secondly, make sure you review coverages and cut down on any coverage you don’t need. An insurance policy is meant to make you whole again, not benefit you or enhance you. If you have $800K of personal property coverage, but really only have $400K, you will never see that other half of coverage you were paying for!

Next, take a look at your deductible and talk to your broker about the options you have. Having a higher deductible in some cases can make a huge difference and make more sense for you.

Lastly, try to combine other policies together and get some multi-policy discounts!

Feel free to give us, Unity One Insurance, a call anytime to get a quote for your home insurance or to get a free review of your current policy. We are here and happy to help! Call now, at 949-450-1822 or email us at info@unity1.com