Home Insurance Premiums Are Up 150% In This CA County: Check Yours

The median annual insurance premium for California mortgage holders was $1,700 last year, 28 percent more than a decade earlier after inflation adjustment, the San Francisco Chronicle recently reported, citing a working paper by faculty from the universities of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.

Particularly vulnerable to rising insurance costs are the residents of areas at the greatest climate risk, according to the newspaper, which reported that the academic paper said that nationwide, a $1 hike in premiums is associated with an approximately $100 drop in property value growth for the riskiest ZIP codes.

The paper's authors, Philip Mulder and Benjamin Keys, found that in the top 10 percent of riskiest ZIPs in the country, home prices saw around $44,000 less growth on average than in similar ZIP codes, according to the Chronicle.

Nationally, Grand County, Colorado, saw the biggest jump in home insurance premiums between 2014 and 2024, at 188 percent, the newspaper reported, while the California county with the largest increase was Mariposa County at 150 percent, well above any percentage for coastal urban areas in the state.

Californians face unique challenges regarding insurance, as new regulations allow insurers to use future-looking models to justify rate hikes, the newspaper reported, adding that insurers can also pass on some reinsurance costs to clients.

Below are the median annual home insurance premiums for 2024 and the percentages the median premiums have changed since 2014 for California counties associated with the state’s major coastal cities:

SAN FRANCISCO

• Sonoma — $1,834 (40%)
• Napa — $1,851 (31%)
• Marin — $2,658 (27%)
• Solano — $1,654 (21%)
• Contra Costa — $1,759 (16%)
• Alameda — $1,784 (12%)
• San Mateo — $1,809 (7%)
• Santa Clara — $1,566 (−3%)
• San Francisco — $1,889 (−9%)

LOS ANGELES

• San Bernardino — $1,793 (42%)
• Ventura — $1,879 (40%)
• Riverside — $1,917 (38%)
• Los Angeles — $1,698 (37%)
• Orange — $1,824 (32%)

SAN DIEGO

• San Diego — $1,906 (30%)

Read more from the Chronicle.