One California ZIP pays $92. Another pays $32,000. Same policy.

One California ZIP pays $92. Another pays $32,000. Same policy.

A California ZIP code can mean a bare-bones last-resort policy for $92 a year — or $32,000 for the exact same coverage. The FAIR Plan now covers more than 1 million properties statewide, up 43% in just 15 months, as carriers including State Farm and Allstate pulled back from wildfire-exposed zones. Some coastal ZIPs average above $25,000 annually. Valley communities dip under $200.

Gobble's Take: When one state backstop runs from couch-cushion money to used-car money, "insurance" starts sounding a lot like a ZIP code lottery.

Source: Gobbles.news

Travelers is heading back into California wildfire country — because a regulator made it worth their while

Travelers says it will reverse course and write new homeowner policies in California, targeting 5,600 new policies in wildfire-exposed areas over the next two years. That follows a wave of non-renewals last summer that pushed thousands of Santa Monica Mountains homeowners onto the FAIR Plan. The move is tied to a deal brokered by Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara: approve meaningful rate increases, and carriers must expand back into the danger zones they abandoned.

Gobble's Take: Higher rates in, more homes covered out — that's California's insurance bargain in one sentence, and nobody's pretending it's a good deal.

Source: Gobbles.news

Florida filings are still climbing. Just not quite as fast.

The latest Rate Authority daily brief logged 164 insurance rate filings on May 23, 2026, across 16 states. Florida is decelerating, while South Carolina, Maine, and Georgia are accelerating. Florida's quarter-over-quarter rate-change average sits at +11.5%, down 0.6 points, on 22 filings. Slower, yes. Cheap, no.

Gobble's Take: Florida homeowners didn't get a break — they got a less brutal increase. The downshift is still expensive.

Source: Rate Authority

The homeowners insurance market is printing money again — and regulators are watching

S&P Global Market Intelligence reported a $22.1b US P&C net underwriting gain in Q1 2026 — the strongest first quarter since 2002 and more than double the figure from 2 years ago. The combined ratio hit 89.5%, also the best since 2002. Homeowners multiperil was the headline swing, with its year-over-year loss ratio collapsing from 102.3% to 44.3%. The same analysis warns this is a reversion-driven peak, not a new normal — and that profitability this visible will invite pressure from regulators to moderate pricing.

Gobble's Take: Insurers posted their best numbers in two decades, and somewhere a regulator just picked up a pen.

Source: Perplexity Search

In Case You Missed It

Yesterday's top stories:

• California's home insurance mess keeps finding new ways to be a mess
• Record P&C profits are real — just don't mistake them for a homeowner win