California Insurability Index
Of the 327 California homes in the index, 34% are estimated to be difficult or very difficult to insure.
Last updated October 22, 2026. Methodology
The Insurability Index is an estimate of insurance availability, not an offer, a quote, or a guarantee of coverage. It does not reflect any particular insurer’s underwriting decisions.
California at a glance
- Homes scored
- 327
- Difficult or very difficult to insure
- 34%
- Most common high-hazard driver
- Earthquake (84%)
- Easy to Insure
- Moderate
- Difficult
- Very Difficult
By county
| County | Homes scored | Easy to Insure | Moderate | Difficult | Very Difficult | Hard to insure | Top hazard drivers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marin | 56 | 57% | 23% | 20% | 0% | 20% | Earthquake 96%, Flood 77%, Landslide 9% |
| San Francisco | 44 | 91% | 7% | 2% | 0% | 2% | Earthquake 96%, Flood 16% |
| Los Angeles | 36 | 31% | 11% | 58% | 0% | 58% | Earthquake 100%, Wildfire 67%, Flood 64% |
27 more counties have scored homes, but not yet enough to publish separately. Those homes are included in the statewide figures above.
To protect homeowners’ privacy we only publish a figure for an area once at least 25 homes there have a score, and we never publish anything about an individual address. Figures appear here automatically as more homes are scored.
Methodology
Each home in the index has an Underwrite Insurability Score: a rules-based estimate of how readily a home can get homeowners insurance, built from hazard models, FEMA flood maps, public records, building permits and listing data. Read how the score works.
The index counts each address once, using its most recent score, and includes only scores with enough underlying data to show publicly. Scores computed before an address’s property data finished loading are left out.
Hard to insure is the share of scored homes in the two hardest bands, difficult and very difficult. Top hazard drivers are the perils (wildfire, flood, wind/hail, earthquake, landslide) most often rated high or very high for scored homes in the area.
Privacy. An area (state or county) is published only when at least 25 homes there are scored, and a hazard driver is listed only when several homes share it. No address-level data is published.
Limitations. The index covers homes that have been looked up or worked on through Underwrite, not a random sample of all housing, and it leans toward homes people expected to be hard to insure. Treat it as a view of the homes we see, not a census. Scoring methodology v1.2.0.
- Easy to Insure
- Broadly insurable in the standard market.
- Moderate
- Insurable, though it may take some shopping among carriers.
- Difficult
- Likely needs a specialty or surplus-lines carrier, or mitigation first.
- Very Difficult
- A constrained market; few carriers will write it as it stands.
Cite this data
Writing about home insurance availability? Please credit Underwrite.com and link to this page so readers can see the methodology.
Underwrite.com, “Underwrite Insurability Index: California”, data as of October 22, 2026. https://www.underwrite.com/insurability-index/ca
Machine-readable figures: JSON. Media inquiries: contact us.