Home insurance

[moparedtn]

Never know what could happen, but where I’ve resided, can’t recall many fed emergency aid for squat. Lucky? I’d say more a that than any skill. For years, before I retired, had dreams of moving to a warmer climate. Hate winter. Been rather mild past several years. Lol, had thoughts of planting a Palm tree to see if it would survive. Hell, several trees I planted, supposedly for our climate, croaked!

Have old bud’s who moved south and west. Moved my kid to Miami for her job – in July! Oly chit hey. Several visits there during different times of the year. Nice for like four months. Bud in the SW sent me a photo of his thermo in July – another oly chit, was far beyond the scale. He says can’t do squat outdoors during the high-summer.

So? It’s total crap here from Dec-April - 4 months. Really reliably decent? Ok, admit, count closer to five. Been all over the country at all times of the year (most biz travel). MO, by and large not quite enough to prompt me to pull up my deep roots here to move. Compelling though as where you reside I think gives another good month or so of nice weather. You can answer this better than me, lol.

We get a legit couple months of the colder, gray and damp going on.
We're also seeing crap-tons of people moving here from the usual - CA, MI, NY, etc.
The real surprise to me in all that though? A LOT of people are coming here from FL -
reporting the humidity of summer, along with cost of living and increasing illegals and
crime, make here much more appealing.

 

[QuickBpBp]

Home insurance is governed and marketed at the state level, so no, I'm not subsidizing the CA fires damage, but I am subsidizing the FL hurricane damage.

Sometimes, though as is the case here, the haves get subsidized by the have less'

My homeowners ins. went up after Sandy hit. My agent told me once they lose *** amount in their assets they get some federal funds. Then the difference then can be charged throughout their customers at a *** % increase per year. Insurance companies never really lose. So we do actually foot the bill for some of it.

 

[Hey-O]

My homeowners insurance keeps creeping up every year. I get a break when I buy or build a NEW house. Then in a few years it starts to creep back up. Of course it's a money grab and I know people that play it to have property that is in VERY high risk recreational areas. Make no mistake we are subsidizing their good time. I'm not happy about it and have made comments about it. They just grin and remind me that I'm involved by being an investor and investing in the market. It's always about the money and if you think it's not, then it's really about the money..... There is always money to be made off the back of others, I don't like it, but, I play to offset the screwing we all get. I could go on, but, this thread is rated G.

 

[wahya]

We get a legit couple months of the colder, gray and damp going on.
We're also seeing crap-tons of people moving here from the usual - CA, MI, NY, etc.
The real surprise to me in all that though? A LOT of people are coming here from FL -
reporting the humidity of summer, along with cost of living and increasing illegals and
crime, make here much more appealing.

People from Florida just realizing that the humidity and all are to their dislike? Those people are probably transplants from up north, lived here a few years and then decided to move by you. Florida is filled up (saw that on a bumper sticker the other day).

 

[YY1]

The unrealistically high housing market is contributing big time to skyrocketing insurance costs.

I just wonder if the bubble will burst before inflation catches up and makes it the new norm.

In four years, mine's gone from 1.8K to 2.4K to 3.2K to 4.5K

 

[YY1]

My entire philosophy regarding insurance has been to be as close to "self insured" as possible.

I tend to choose the lowest cost, least "extra benefits", highest deductible type of policy available.

...and at the same time contribute the savings to a "big pile of cash", in case something happens.

The benefit should be obvious. (hint- it's the big pile of cash), but it takes nearly an iron constitution to keep that pile of cash and not use it for other purposes.

Another benefit is that since I do that with both home and auto, I can use that money for things like major repairs.

The bottom line is, the big pile of cash stays with me rather than get handed over to an ins company "just in case".

All insurance is a calculated risk, by both you and the provider.

I just calculate differently.

 

[moparedtn]

People from Florida just realizing that the humidity and all are to their dislike? Those people are probably transplants from up north, lived here a few years and then decided to move by you. Florida is filled up (saw that on a bumper sticker the other day).

"Half-backs", yep. That's how it works.

 

[Hey-O]

It's a game, the buying starts when interest is low and it's an opportunity to buy what you normally couldn't afford and demand drives the cost up. Then, when interest rates go up, people continue to buy for fear of missing out, again driving cost up. Inflation keeps material cost up, which pushes people to buy before they get higher and so goes the game. For now, the differences between today’s housing market and the 2008 housing crash is that lending standards are much tighter and most borrowers now have fixed-rate mortgages, not so before the fall in 2008. So even though mortgage rates have doubled, current homeowners are seeing no change in their monthly principal and interest payments. Now, selling your low interest home for a new higher interest home that is still priced high starts a new problem. For now, all is fine, in my view point. I play this game and it's fascinating to watch people panic that are new to the game. Those are the ones that cause the bubble and the ones I use as a gauge looking forward. Just my opinion.

 

[Detective D]

People from Florida just realizing that the humidity and all are to their dislike? Those people are probably transplants from up north, lived here a few years and then decided to move by you. Florida is filled up (saw that on a bumper sticker the other day).

Older people in WI live here in the summer and leave here in the Winter. They go to two places: Florida, or Arizona. Even in my town of 3k people, I will run into a seasonal resident once a week, all summer.
I haven't heard any of them say Arizona is crowded yet

 

[Gus chiggins]

I don't live in CA. I can't speak to the issues going on there from personal experience. I live about as far removed from coastal BS as possible without living in the mountains as a hermit.
However, apparently CA is working to allow the insurance companies to use speculation to set rates on home insurance. In return, they will be required to cover homes.




Now, this can be worded in a way that maybe makes sense on it's face, but ultimately the government requiring insurance coverage and how insurance works(everyone pays in so when a claim is made that person is covered) means everyone will foot the bill for government mandated insurance. Sounds like a loosely related to obamacare approach.
My concern is this will go nationwide if it benefits the insurance companies(it will, for certain) due to their lobbying power. Then I will get to foot the bill for people living in stupid *** places. I will get to pay premiums for the people living in hurricane areas, flood areas, and yes, wildfire areas. This is the first step in letting the insurance companies get back to making absurd profits(which they dump into the stock market) after a stretch of bad luck. They made sure to throw climate change in there lol, can't talk about something with the most recent buzzwords!
Future state the WEF does not want people owning homes. As others have mentioned about old cars in various other threads, insurance can be a tool to push people out of them. Once the government requires coverage to be available, it is only a matter of time before they require everyone to have it. I feel bad for people that can't get their home covered, it is a huge investment to not have that back up plan financially, but long term this is going to end really badly IMO and people need to deal with their own problems sometimes instead of expecting the government or the rest of society bail them out. This will be open season on the insurance companies cranking rates for everyone regardless. This serves as their excuse to spread it to everyone instead of creating ill will by localizing the risk. Like obamacare, it becomes taxpayer subsidized insurance, once removed, to avoid legal issues and other things that all end up falling in favor of the big companies.

I live in Florida, so yes I am paying for Florida coastal beach homes too 5hat get blown away in a hurricane, and I live nowhere near any beach area, but in reality we are all paying for natural disasters no matter where they are. No insurance company bets, or uses house money, the insured do that.

 

[Detective D]

I live in Florida, so yes I am paying for Florida coastal beach homes too 5hat get blown away in a hurricane, and I live nowhere near any beach area, but in reality we are all paying for natural disasters no matter where they are. No insurance company bets, or uses house money, the insured do that.

Things are still regionalized to an extent. Mostly because home prices and replacement costs are regionalized, and they do account for risk assesment.
If this situation were to go nationwide like obummercare, then all bets are off. They want to reinvent the machine here, turn the page to the next level.

 

[5.7 hemi]

It should be that if you live in an area that has frequent natural disasters, then YOU pay accordingly and not everyone that has the same insurance company contribute to lower your premiums!

 

[RiverRaider]

In WI wasn't that long ago auto insurance wasn't mandated. People I knew got smacked by driver's w/o insurance and they didn't have a pot to piss in to collect squat - and we, the insured, had to pay 'Uninsured Motorist' coverage.

We used to call it "Stay Safe Mutual out of Goodluck, WI" A person was supposed to be able to show financial responsibility, rather than insurance but few did.

 

[68BabyBlue]

My entire philosophy regarding insurance has been to be as close to "self insured" as possible.

I tend to choose the lowest cost, least "extra benefits", highest deductible type of policy available.

...and at the same time contribute the savings to a "big pile of cash", in case something happens.

The benefit should be obvious. (hint- it's the big pile of cash), but it takes nearly an iron constitution to keep that pile of cash and not use it for other purposes.

When I worked in corporate trucking, my employer utilized this, and grew exponentially, until finally paying the piper for some ill considered moves. Nationwide tank line hauling multiple products, layered insurance with $30,000,000 umbrella liability at the top. Company paid a $60,000 annual deductible per person on health insurance. Liability and property damage on the the trucks was self insured for $50,000 to $100,000 depending on loss history of our last contract. We had a smart CFO, who tried to get the owner to sell off our hazardous liquid division. Instead, he got rid of the CFO, and later expanded it through acquisitions. This was when I made the decision to resign as general counsel.

Between the time I resigned, and my final consulting gig (golden parachute) expired, the chemical operations used up the cash pile, and then some. The liability insurer refused to renew. As the driver force aged, the health insurance deductible devoured cash flow. The CEO ultimately did what he should have done a decade earlier, sold the hazardous division, but only after the banks called the loans, and forced the company into Chapter 11.
The lower risk operations couldn't carry the bad ones indefinitely.

 

[YY1]

It's all about risk.

 

[alsant]

It’s a scam !

 

[1967coronet]

We have used monthly automatic withdrawal for health and life insurance since it became available.
Real-estate and autos are once per year so we mail those.
At this age I do not want to miss a life insurance payment

 

[GetX'd]

Been in the Property/Casualty business and personal lines insurance w/two top of the line carriers for 35 yrs. I read this thread and some is legit and much is not. Most people simply don‘t understand the inner workings of the carriers or the business. They just know they hate paying for it. I do to - but I fully believe in being very adequately insured to protect my assets and in accordance with my exposure and I’ll pay what I must to make sure of that. The carriers deserve to make a fair profit for the risk they’re covering. In CA they’re simply not. The loss ratio for personal lines in this state needs to be around .80 for them to make a profit. It’s currently running around 1.50. They’re getting killed. Different degrees in different areas but the formula is pretty much the same. Everyone can get insurance albeit some at high risk have to go to the Fair Plan - and they’ll pay thru the nose for basic coverage. The price of owning homes in very high risk locations. As far as the carriers go - what choice do they have but to increase rates, cut back drastically on their exposure - or sometimes pull out of a state? Often if they make the decision to pull up stakes they’ll be banished from coming back in at such point as the environment is friendlier. Then there are situations like the LA Riots in the early nineties. Everyone conveniently forgets times like that and what insurers did. By exclusion, by contract, insurers weren't obligated or on the hook for the horrendous damages caused because war, riot, civil commotion is excluded on every policy written. Yet they did collectively pay the freight.

I‘ve said enough. I could write a book on the subject with little desire to do so. Just know it isn’t all what so many seem to think. And lastly not all carriers take care of business as properly as should be done. Choose wisely whom you entrust yourself to. Lord willing you’ll never have to call on them for terms of your agreement - but if you should, make sure you’re with one That deals honorably and will live up to those terms w/o a fight. Or of course there are ways for one to go it alone w/o any insurance - who’s foolish enough to do that.

 

[Ron H]

We used to call it "Stay Safe Mutual out of Goodluck, WI" A person was supposed to be able to show financial responsibility, rather than insurance but few did.

A few used to obtain auto coverage for registration and then cancel it after. Pay for Netflix instead of auto insurance...

 

[GetX'd]

A few used to obtain auto coverage for registration and then cancel it after. Pay for Netflix instead of auto insurance...

Out here there’s a hell of a lot more than a “few” buying and canceling - more like a few million. And yes one can post a financial responsibility bond and go w/o. Here the minimum liability limits are $25k. What’s that going to pay for? All the more reason to have high limits on uninsured/underinsured liability coverage. Five yrs ago I was in a pretty serious not at fault accident - after tapping his limits my carrier had to pony up another $200k to max my underinsured limits too. If I’d had more my carrier would have paid more. An Umbrella does not go over those two liability limits in contrast to your primary liability limit in which it does. Don’t get caught w/your pants down ……