Home insurance is becoming increasingly expensive and harder to find in the Wasatch Back.
State Farm and Allstate recently made headlines when they announced they will no longer sell new home insurance policies in California, due to wildfire risk and inflationary costs.
Steve Davis is a senior vice president with Zion’s Insurance, which manages home policies in Utah.
“California is kind of the catalyst for what’s coming down the road,” Davis said. “But about just over a year ago, we saw most major insurance companies here in Utah implement new underwriting guidelines or restrictions, in terms of insuring new homes in Summit and Wasatch counties. And this has had a very significant impact on consumers wanting to get home insurance in those two counties.”
He said insurance companies are now using a wildfire mapping software program that allows them to score the risk of homes, typically on a scale of 1 to 50 – with 50 being the highest risk. Davis said homes that score over 35 are usually not approved for insurance coverage.
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This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.