State Farm will discontinue coverage for 72,000 houses and apartments in California starting this summer, the insurance giant said this week, nine months after announcing it would not issue new home policies in the state
The Illinois-based company, California’s largest insurer, cited soaring costs, the increasing risk of catastrophes like wildfires and outdated regulations as reasons it won’t renew the policies on 30,000 houses and 42,000 apartments, the Bay Area News Group reported Thursday.
Being forced to have home insurance is ridiculous. Private companies jack up prices, make all the rules, and come and go as they please. We need to figure out a better system!
The only one forcing people to have homeowners insurance is mortgage companies, that want to ensure the collateral on that mortgage doesn’t disappear.
That and common sense, as even if you don’t have a mortgage, you also don’t want a disaster to make your largest asset go poof.
There is competition. That is meant to keep prices lower. But insuring people in disaster prone areas just isn’t a wise business decision.
So we need to evacuate the entire East Coast and Gulf Coast (hurricanes), the Midwest (tornadoes), the West Coast (fires), and any city built next to a river? Really?
Those areas are not at all equivalent. Florida gets flattened by hurricanes every year. California is on fire every year. Other areas get disasters but not with nearly the same frequency.
Once you get a bit farther north than Florida huricanes are not an every year thing. Sure they still happen but not with nearly the frequency that they do along the gulf coast. The midwest gets tornados but outside of tornado alley they are a rare thing. Even in the areas where they are frequent the damage tends to be more localized when they hit than with huricanes or wild fires. As far as rivers go, they do flood but that is something that can be controlled. As someone who has lived along the coast of the Mississippi for their entire life I am very aware of all of the flood prevention work the army core of engineers has put into the area and it all works. Sure it’s still a risk if there is a dam failure or an especially heavy storm but that is a once every 50 year thing not a literally every year thing. If you are living in an area that floods every year and that risk can’t be mitigated then, yes, you should stop living there.
Sometimes a comment comes along that’s so full of bullshit it’s kind of impressive.
Climate change will be doing a lot of that, like it our not.
But at the very least, the rest of us shouldn’t have to subsidize it. I’m tired of my insurance in the Great Lakes region skyrocketing because of disasters in CA or the gulf coast.
Who is forced to have home insurance?
If you can afford a Californian mortgage, you can afford to leave the state and buy your house outright.
But some people think they’re “too good” for that, while they complain about not being able to afford where they currently are.
I feel like that requirement comes from mortgage lenders, not the government.
Exactly. I don’t think the government requires people to have home insurance.
I certainly don’t have it.
The original comment never said the government was forcing people to have it. Most people need a mortgage to own a home, few are privileged enough to avoid a mortgage by inheriting a home or buying one outright. Less than 25% of homeowners own their home outright. So most are effectively forced to have home insurance
And you wouldn’t want to see your mortgage rate if that mortgage was no longer secured with a collateral asset, which is what a mortgage without insurance would essentially be. Unsecured debt always has much higher rates. You are better off with insurance. You pay one way or another.
See: https://lemmy.ca/comment/8157092
He’s complaining that cheaper areas aren’t good enough for him and that his current area is too expensive.
He thinks he’s entitled to more before others who have less, just like most city-folk.
Your arrogance and projection shines through your comments. Reddit sucks indeed, and you are making lemmy a more toxic and miserable place to be. Blocked
Right. Nobody likes to acknowledge when they’re being entitled.
Yourself included, it would seem.
You stupid fuck, running around trying to show everyone your clever argument like a child with a scribble they did. I just moved AWAY from a small town to a big city to get away from the crushing poverty and isolation and idiots like you. My point to you was rhetorical, because that’s what you’re asking people to do. Not that it’s my own life’s position. Here’s my position. I’ll dox myself here; Putnam County Florida, poorest county in the most “successful” red State, which can’t stop hemorrhaging jobs or money because the governor only cares about how tall his shoes make him. And that’s the best conservatives can offer. So I’ve recently moved across the fucking country to find work in a place I can. Actually afford to live because they pay a fair wage. And rent is the same. Coffee is the same. Bread costs the same. But they also have public services, public transportation. And my neighbors aren’t meth heads, conspiracy theorists, hateful racists and bigots. Not anymore. Not since I left the sorts of places you’re telling people to “just move to” as if moving across the country doesn’t cost a shit ton of money people don’t have. Hell, moving across town is expensive, and you want people to just drop everything and go live in Texas or some shit. Fuck off, you have no idea clearly.
Edit: And I’m actually free here. I can smoke weed. My girlfriend is in charge of her own body. I can vote without worrying it will be thrown out or the governor will send the sherrif at me. I can buy an electric vehicle without anyone screaming about George Soros whoever he is. I can feel comfortable knowing my lunch meat wasn’t sliced by children. So many things you pay to suffer for I chose to pay to avoid.
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Lol. I love how you start off with an insult. Really shows your rational approach to the subject.
My point still stands. If you can’t afford where you currently live, you need to move somewhere cheaper.
If those cheaper locations aren’t good enough for you, then why should you get more before the people who live there? You can’t afford it. They can’t afford it. But you think you’re entitled to it before they are.
Rather than move and improve these places, you think you’re entitled to live in areas you cannot afford.
You think supply and demand doesn’t apply to you and other people should foot the bill for your entitlement.
And of course, you get mad and throw a tantrum at anyone who calls it out. This is why you started off your comment by calling me a “stupid fuck”.
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“just upend your entire life and everything you’ve worked for to move to some hellhole flatland state that mainly exists for late night TV jokes to be made about it, where everyone will hate you for your previous life you were forced to give up, because these same cornfed fuckwads want to live in the 1700s, and say you have to join them or they’ll burn crosses on your lawn”
K
die broke then.
What? Cheaper areas aren’t good enough for you?
Why should you get more before the people who live in those areas if you can’t afford it?
Answer: Entitlement.
So if I can’t afford to live where I do because my tax dollars support your flyover state that repeatedly wastes the money on corruption instead of helping peoplw, I need to leave the land I was born to join the untoothed masses? That’s the conservative way, isn’t it? “Oh, we ruined your progress, you should have to do it out way now.”
There’s nothing wrong with the land itself, just the people who live there who shaped their society.
If you can’t afford to live somewhere, then you have to go somewhere cheaper.
It’s part of supply and demand and you’re not exempt from it, despite how entitled you may feel.
You’re also stereotyping which shows your lack of experience outside of major cities. Most of your fear comes from what you do not know or understand.
Unfortunately, you are already too far gone. For you to make better financial decisions, you’d have to admit you’re wrong; and nobody wants to do that.
Good luck waiting for other people to solve your problems. I’m sure that will work out, eventually.
Sorry fella, you replied to your strawman version of me instead of the real thing.
Not really. I just said things you don’t like so you pretend they’re not relevant.
I see it all the time from people like you.
News flash, even if you own your home, you still may want insurance on it.
Keyword: forced
News flash, you need to brush up on your reading comprehension.
Brush up on YOUR reading comprehension. The only party requiring insurance is a mortgage lender, and you were suggesting moving to some shithole cheap enough to pay cash for a house. My point is, even if you own outright – shit, ESPECIALLY if you own outright – it’s probably a good idea.
I fucking hate insurance companies too, but you know what? My car was hit by an unlicensed driver less than 2 weeks ago and was totaled. I would be fucking SCREWED right now if I didn’t have car insurance. Instead I’m getting the car loan paid off and a check for the remaining $20k I can do whatever I want with. It’s gonna be to buy a new car, but I have the choice, instead of holding the bag of shit.
Dang.
I need to have a word with you English teachers.
Listen, I know you didn’t explicitly say “don’t pay for insurance, move somewhere cheap!”, but you absolutely implied it with your argument. Who is forced? Nobody, you’re right. But realistically, if you want to either:
A. Like where you live, or B. have even a fraction of financial safety
you must. Very very few people can afford to purchase a house with cash, especially now, and especially first-generation home buyers. That gives you a pretty unfortunate choice to make.
My main point is, your rhetoric shows that you think WE are the problem. That average Americans should give up the idea that we could live in a city where there is culture, diversity, good education, public transit, and god forbid modest housing options.