Newsom's 16% Insurance Bomb Leads Nation Is Driving Californians Out

Newsom's 16% Insurance Bomb Leads Nation Is Driving Californians Out

July 13, 2026 · 22 min

About this episode

The episode discusses the significant increase in home insurance rates in California and its implications for homeowners.

California homeowners are about to absorb the steepest home insurance rate increase of any state in the country — a 16% spike that isn't a rounding error but the compounding result of years of regulatory failure. Gavin Newsom's California Department of Insurance kept a stranglehold on rate approvals for so long that major carriers like State Farm and Allstate simply walked away. Residents were left relying on an underfunded state plan nobody wanted, and when the Palisades fire hit and billions in claims came due, the math finally caught up. Now the bill is landing inside escrow accounts and monthly mortgage payments that millions of California families cannot absorb. Overregulation didn't protect consumers — it guaranteed this crisis. The reinsurance market priced the risk that Sacramento refused to acknowledge, and every homeowner in the state is now paying for that bet. This is just one more notch on California's affordability belt. Insurance isn't optional when you carry a mortgage, and when the unavoidable cost of staying becomes unsustainable, people leave. They already are — and this 16% shock is going to accelerate it. The state is not getting cheaper. It is getting more…

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