Insurance has been such a frustrating part of life for so many people, and it’s been a real problem in the housing market. Today, I want to talk about some ways higher insurance is affecting real estate, and I have some fresh stats to share too. This is my last blog post of 2025, and I’m so grateful for all of the conversations we had this year. Thank you for your support!!
NOTE: I’ll have a 2026 outlook post during the first week of January.
UPCOMING SPEAKING GIGS:
1/13/26 Residential RoundUp via Zoom (register here)
1/14/26 Windermere EDH / Placerville
1/20/26 Carlile Group (private event)
2/11/26 San Joaquin County presentation (TBA)
2/20/26 PCAR
3/25/26 Coldwell Banker EDH
4/14/26 Culbertson & Gray
10/2/26 PCAR
HOW INSURANCE IS AFFECTING THE HOUSING MARKET
We’re in the thick of feeling the pain of rising insurance costs in the housing market, and it’s going to take time for this to work itself out. Rising insurance rates are affecting purchasing power among buyers, marketability for sellers, and there is growing uncertainty for owners about what to do if costs keep going up. This affects property owners in fire hazard zones for sure, but we’re also seeing a problem with condo association insurance going up (which causes HOA fees to rise). Insurance has been tough for older and classic homes too, though traditional insurance still seems like it’s still mostly available. But backing up, most types of insurance have been rising, which has been a huge challenge for consumers. Ultimately, higher insurance rates are negatively affecting housing affordability.
Check out the increases in FAIR Plan policies (more below):
WHAT TO WATCH IN 2026
Who is going to sell due to rising insurance costs? What are prices doing in outlying areas where insurance has become a significant expense? How is insurance affecting the suburbs with older homes in particular? What are sellers having to offer buyers to entice them – particularly in high fire hazard zones? How are buyers feeling about purchasing when a greater portion of their income is going to various types of insurance?
CONDOS WILL STILL BE SOFT
I expect condos will continue to show a softer trend, and a big part of this has to do with insurance increases leading to HOA fees rising. Detached cancellations aren’t back to 2019 levels yet, but condo cancellations are higher than they’ve been for a decade.
THIS IS ME. CAN YOU RELATE?
I feel like I exist so I can pay insurance of all types. I was just saying this to my wife the other day when our home insurance came in the mail (it’s doubled in recent years). I don’t know about you, but my household is also going to pay $300 more per month in health insurance in 2026.
NOT A SHOCKER TO SEE MORE FAIR PLAN POLICIES IN CALIFORNIA
When people can’t get traditional insurance, they get what’s called the California FAIR Plan (or “unfair plan” as locals call it). This is basically an association made up of all insurers, and it’s deemed last-resort type of insurance as it tends to be super expensive. By the way, insurance is a growing issue across the country, so it’s not just a California thing.
MORE FAIR PLAN IN EVERY LOCAL COUNTY
We aren’t seeing the same level of insurance issues in every local county, but there is no mistaking an increase everywhere. Scroll images to see what I mean. And remember, there are actual people behind these stats who are now paying more for insurance.
NOTE: I was using California Department of Insurance stats, but their most “recent” data only goes through 2023, which is embarrassing. This is why I’m now relying on the CA Fair Plan website.
REAL ESTATE FRIENDS
Please feel free to use these visuals to help describe what the market is doing, and keep me posted with what you’re seeing boots on the ground (I want to hear from people who don’t work in real estate too). I really value your take, and you can always email or text anytime. And may we continue to grow in empathy and always recognize the people behind the stats.
THANK YOU FOR 2025
I appreciate everyone who read my blog this year, whether it was one post or all of them. Thank you for the conversations we’ve had, and I’m so incredibly grateful for the relationships that have been built and deepened this year. In addition to me doing more than enough appraisals, I actually spoke 58 times too, which was honestly insane. I didn’t know if speaking would subside since the housing market has been tough, but it turns out perspective and stats are more important than ever. Thank you, friends.
LEAVING COMMENTS: The captcha is not working perfectly. If you open up a new browser, that should solve the issue. It’s been a problem to comment when clicking from my weekly email. My apologies.
Questions: How are you seeing insurance show up in the real estate market right now? What is happening with your insurance bills? Any plans for the holiday?
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Happy Holidays!
I haven’t seen data that insurance costs are impacting house prices yet, but would not be shocked to see it.
I had a health insurance plan through Covered California and my rate went up $1,600 per month for the same insurance. I switched to a group plan so it only went up $1,100 per month. Count yourself lucky that yours has gone up only $300 per month.
Yikes, Joe. I’m so sorry to hear that. I do count myself blessed. That is insane. That is unreal.
I need to push out some more exhaustive stats regarding volume this year to show what’s happening in outlying areas. So far, it seems like volume isn’t much worse than so many other areas, but I need to do exhaustive analysis. Some locations could struggle. This doesn’t really speak to price though, which is another issue to study (and more challenging in some markets with more limited sales).
Great point regarding volume. Inventory trends with volume could be a real indicator of the impact.
As for personal health insurance, I’m one of the more affected but I know other local appraisers hit by similar rate increases. I’m definitely cutting back on spending to pay for the coverage. I’m sure I won’t be alone.
It seems like both can help show us the trend. I do sometimes share stats for deeper Placer and El Dorado in presentations, and people are surprised that volume isn’t always looking so dismal. Yet, volume represents the ones selling and doesn’t speak to the ones that are lingering on the market…
It’s tough out there with insurance. I use a broker because he seems to be able to get us the best deal. I tried to navigate the Covered CA system without the broker one year, and I just couldn’t get the same results. It seems like insurance is similar to doing taxes. It can be done by citizens, but it’s also complicated, so experts can help us. Man, sorry yours went up so much. That’s absurd. How do people get ahead when they have to fork out so much money for insurance? This is a real problem. Sigh.
Thank you for all the information about insurance rates and what’s happening in California with FAIR Plan.
Thank you, Gary. I hope you and your family have an amazing holiday. I appreciate your support. Hope to see you one of these days again.
As always, lots of good info to unpack. Insurance is definitely a real thing. There a lot of insurance stories out there. Mine are not unlike so many others. When I worked up in Tuolumne County, from 2013 to 20/3, Realtors would tell me stories about deals falling through because buyers simply couldn’t get Homeowners insurance and CA Fair Plan was too expensive. And those that had fire insurance were having policies cancelled ( Our experience) and rates went through the roof, so to speak. In Contra Costa County, where we lived, our Homeowners insurance was up to $5,000/year for Q3 quality home, less than 3000 sf. We escaped all that, or so we thought, moving to the San Juan Islands in WA. While our homeowners insurance is reasonable, relative to CA, the health insurance for my wife and I is up to $2,400/month. Why so high? Because we live in a Rural area, there is only 1 provider. The only other provider left our county a few months ago. And we are both pretty healthy. Will health insurance rates impact real estate prices up here? Don’t know yet. Time will tell.
Thanks for sharing, Anthony. Wow, $2,400 is so much. And meanwhile I don’t think politicians on both sides are taking all of these things seriously enough.
Merry Christmas and have a great new year. Thank you for your post.
Thank you so much, Rick. Merry Christmas to you!!!
Great table on annual increases Ryan…makes you think twice about living in the trees. And why does Sac County have FAIR plan policies at all? I thought according to CAL Fire GIS maps that none of the county was in fire risk at all. Are these hyper specific properties?
Thanks Matt. You know, I’d defer to an insurance specialist to speak to that. I don’t really know the answer. There are stats by ZIP Code on the FAIR Plan website, but it’s pretty tedious to find stuff. https://www.cfpnet.com/key-statistics-data/ But if you download the ZIP Code PDF, you can hit Control G to search by terms. If you plug in various Sacramento ZIP Codes, you can find some that are present. But the details aren’t ample either. If any insurance brokers or people in the know want to pitch in, I’d love to hear more.
Thank you Ryan. Great info. I live in El Dorado County, one of the highest areas. When insurance goes up, something has to give and it’s not the insurance side. Some areas are hit harder here than others but it definitely does affect our market values. Having insurance quotes upfront for your listings, will help with less cancellations of escrows.
Have a Merry Christmas and look forward to seeing your blogs in 2026.
Thank you so much, Vicky. It seems like insurance is simply a bigger and more upfront part of the transaction. I like your style to help avoid cancellations. Merry Christmas to you!!!!