New statistics on California’s property-insurance market, where extreme weather has driven one of the country’s worst insurance crises, illuminate twin realities.
Hundreds of thousands of Californians are still unable to find property coverage from the private sector and forced to buy it from the state insurer of last resort. Yet the market may be stabilizing in response to state efforts to court private insurers.
The California FAIR Plan, which offers coverage to those declined by the private market, released data showing it added 38,000 policies in the six months from September through March — a 6 percent increase. The plan now covers $750 billion of property value, more than triple its exposure in late 2022.
But the California Department of Insurance said the FAIR Plan added only 16,000 policies in the first quarter of 2026. The growth rate is “greatly slowed” from what happened in 2024 and part of 2025, when the FAIR plan grew by 35,000 to 50,000 policies per quarter, the department said.
