Two of California’s largest home insurers will each raise rates for customers by an average of 6.9% later this year, according to filings with the California Department of Insurance.
CSAA, the AAA-affiliated insurer for northern and central California, will begin implementing the rate increase for nearly 481,800 homeowners starting on March 15.
Rates for more than 650,000 customers with Mercury Insurance, the third-largest home insurer in California, will begin to change in July. Homeowners’ rates are set to rise by an average of 8.2%, while condo owners and home renters’ rates will decrease by averages of 8.3% and 6.3%, respectively.
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The exact amount of increase or decrease will depend on each customer and their wildfire risk. Changes to Mercury rates could range from a -10% decrease to a 60% increase, according to the filing. Some CSAA homeowners will see rates rise less than the 6.9% average, while others will increase by up to 8%.
Both rate filings were approved late last month. They’re the first rate increases to be approved under the year-old Sustainable Insurance Strategy — Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara’s slate of reforms aimed at improving California’s insurance crisis.
The reforms were expected to lead to rate increases, but Lara promised these hikes would come with the trade-off of insurers writing more policies in parts of the state where insurance has become scarce.
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