Allstate has received California’s blessing to raise homeowner insurance premiums 4%, but the state’s fifth largest home insurer said it has no plans to reverse its decision last fall to stop writing new policies.
That will mean higher bills for Allstate’s existing customers, and no relief for other homeowners in the state who are losing their coverage in areas ravaged by recent destructive wildfires, floods and landslides. For homeowners desperately seeking new policies, the news isn’t good: State Farm, California’s largest home insurer, said in late May it also would stop writing new policies, igniting fears of an insurance market collapse.
Allstate said it had applied for the rate increase in April 2021, before inflation hit last year, sending prices for new shingles, wood, insulation and labor soaring. With Proposition 103, the 1988 California initiative that requires the state to review and approve rate increases, Allstate said insurers cannot adjust their prices quickly in the state.
