Press Releases
June 11, 2025
CALIFORNIA — If State Farm’s proposed 11% rate hike is approved, the average Californian policyholder will be paying $1,015 more for homeowners insurance in 2026 than they did in 2023, according to a new analysis from the Center for Climate Integrity.
State Farm’s requested rate increase is the second in less than a year, coming just months after California's insurance commissioner approved a 17% increase. The insurer has cited the need to recover costs from the deadly January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, which scientists have found was made 35% more likely due to fossil fuel-driven climate change.
“It’s not fair that everyday Californians are forced to pay higher insurance rates because of a relentless stream of climate disasters, while the Big Oil companies fueling the crisis rake in profits and pay nothing,” said Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity. “The insurance crisis is a direct result of the climate crisis that Big Oil has caused. Before insurers raise rates, they should stand up for their policyholders and fight to recover damages from the fossil fuel corporations whose climate pollution, obstruction, and disinformation are driving up costs for Californians.”
Report Findings
Under the already approved 17% rate increase, the average State Farm policyholder in California will pay $737 more for homeowners insurance in 2025 than they did in 2023 — a 39% percent increase during that time.
If the additional 11% percent increase is granted, the average State Farm policyholder in California will pay $1,015 more for homeowners insurance in 2026 than they did in 2023 — a 55% percent increase during that time.
The largest percentage and dollar increases will occur in zip codes along the Sierra Nevadas that have higher wildfire risk and those in Southern California that are at higher risk of wildfires and rising seas. In some of these zip codes, premiums will more than double in two years and be 2.5 times more expensive in just three years.
The zip code with the largest dollar premium increase from 2023-2025 will be 91302 in Calabasas in Los Angeles County, where more than 1,700 policyholders will see premiums increase an average of $6,832, or 68%. The same zip code has the largest projected dollar increase for 2023-2026, where policy holders will see premiums increase an average of $8,689, or 86%.
This report documents how higher insurance costs — a direct result of climate-fueled disasters — are falling on hundreds of thousands of everyday Californians and threatening to put affordable insurance out of reach for countless more. This crisis should compel California officials and policymakers to seek out alternative approaches to cover the escalating costs of climate disasters — including making Big Oil pay.
Major oil and gas companies are responsible for the vast majority of fossil fuel pollution that has heated and altered the climate in California. According to lawsuits from the California attorney general and eight California municipalities, these same companies have engaged in a decades-long campaign to deceive the public about the dangers of fossil fuels in order to impede the transition to other forms of energy. Meanwhile, these companies have raked in an average $3 billion in profits everyday for 50 years.
The report uses data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the California Department of Insurance, the latter compiled by the San Francisco Chronicle and other sources, to calculate home insurance rate increases for State Farm policyholders for each zip code across California. Find the full searchable dataset of costs here.
Californians Support Proposals to Recover Climate Costs from Polluters
CCI's report seeks to inform the growing debate about how officials can protect insurance policyholders from rising costs from climate change. State legislators and California’s former insurance commissioner have pointed to the role that fossil fuel pollution has played in making extreme weather events more frequent and destructive and called for making major oil and gas companies pay for the resulting damage. A February poll from CCI and Data for Progress found California voters widely support efforts to make Big Oil cover the costs of climate disasters and their impacts on home insurance rates.