If you own a home in Simi Valley, you've probably noticed something unsettling: your insurance options are shrinking, and your premiums are climbing. You're not imagining it. The combination of wildfire risk from the surrounding mountains and earthquake exposure has created a perfect storm in California's home insurance market. More than 100,000 California homeowners lost coverage between 2019 and 2024 as major insurers pulled back from high-risk areas. The question isn't whether Simi Valley is affected—it's how you protect your home when traditional coverage becomes harder to find.
Why Simi Valley's Location Makes Insurance Complicated
Simi Valley sits in a basin bordered by the Santa Susana Mountains to the north and the Simi Hills to the south. It's beautiful terrain, but from an insurance perspective, it's challenging. Many neighborhoods are separated from open brush by only a few hundred feet. Even if your home has never experienced fire, your property's "wildfire risk score" may be elevated simply because of topography and wind patterns.
The Simi Hills and surrounding areas are classified as high-hazard zones. When insurers evaluate your property, they're not just looking at your home's construction or your claims history. They're mapping fire behavior models, assessing vegetation density, and calculating how quickly a wildfire could move from the hillside to your neighborhood. These forward-looking risk models became part of California's insurance regulations in 2024, which means insurers can now price in future wildfire risk more aggressively than before.
Add earthquake risk to the mix, and you have a dual-threat scenario. Simi Valley is within 30 miles of multiple active earthquake faults, and residents learned this firsthand during the 1994 Northridge earthquake. Standard homeowners insurance doesn't cover earthquake damage (except for fire caused by earthquakes), so if you want protection from both wildfire and earthquake, you're looking at two separate policies.
What's Happening to Home Insurance in California Right Now
California's home insurance market is in crisis. In February 2024, State Farm announced it would not renew 72,000 home and rental policies statewide, citing "rapidly growing catastrophe exposure, soaring reinsurance costs, and an unsustainable regulatory climate." Other major insurers followed suit. The result? Californians are scrambling to find coverage, often paying significantly more for less protection.
The median annual premium for California homeowners with mortgages hit $1,700 in 2024—28% higher than in 2014 after adjusting for inflation. But that's just the statewide median. In fire-prone areas like Simi Valley, costs can be much higher. Rising construction costs mean that rebuilding after a fire is more expensive than ever, and insurers are pricing in the risk of million-dollar payouts.
Here's where it gets tricky: California introduced new rules in December 2024 requiring insurers to increase their coverage in high-risk areas by 5% every two years until they reach 85% of their market share. The trade-off? Insurers can now use modern catastrophe modeling and factor in reinsurance costs when setting rates. This should improve availability over time, but it also means premiums could continue climbing as insurers recalibrate their risk assessments.
The California FAIR Plan: Your Safety Net (But Not Your First Choice)
When you can't find coverage in the private market, the California FAIR Plan steps in. It's a state-created program that provides basic fire insurance for high-risk properties. As of mid-2024, more than 610,000 homes were on the FAIR Plan—a massive jump from just over 200,000 in late 2020. That tells you everything you need to know about how rapidly the market has deteriorated.
The FAIR Plan is not comprehensive coverage. It covers fire damage, but you'll need to pair it with a separate policy (often called a "wrap" or "difference in conditions" policy) to get the wind, liability, theft, and other protections that a standard homeowners policy provides. The combined cost of FAIR Plan plus a wrap policy is usually higher than traditional coverage, but it's often your only option if you've been denied elsewhere.
One important detail: the FAIR Plan offers premium discounts if you harden your home against wildfire. This means creating defensible space, using fire-resistant roofing and siding, and clearing brush from around your property. Not only does this reduce your premium, but it genuinely improves your home's chances of surviving a wildfire. It's one of the few areas where you have direct control over your insurance costs.
Earthquake Insurance: The Other Policy You Need
Let's be clear: your homeowners policy does not cover earthquake damage. If the ground shakes and cracks your foundation, collapses a wall, or shatters your windows, you're paying out of pocket unless you have separate earthquake insurance. Given that most Californians live within 30 miles of an active fault, this is not a hypothetical risk.
The California Earthquake Authority (CEA) provides most earthquake coverage in the state. CEA policies include dwelling coverage (your home's structure), personal property coverage (your belongings), loss-of-use coverage if you have to move out temporarily, and $10,000 in building code upgrade coverage to bring your home up to current standards after a quake. The average CEA policy costs around $850 per year, though your actual premium depends on your home's age, location, foundation type, and construction materials.
Earthquake insurance comes with high deductibles—typically 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, or 25% of your coverage limit. On a $500,000 home, a 10% deductible means you're responsible for the first $50,000 of damage. That's a lot of money, but it protects you from catastrophic loss. If your home is severely damaged or destroyed in a major earthquake, repair costs could easily exceed $100,000 or $200,000. The deductible stings, but it's manageable compared to total financial ruin.
How to Protect Your Home and Lower Your Costs
You can't control California's insurance market, but you can make your home more insurable. Start with defensible space. Clear dry brush, dead vegetation, and overhanging branches within at least 100 feet of your home. Replace wood shake roofs with fire-resistant materials like asphalt shingles, tile, or metal. Install dual-pane windows, which are more resistant to heat and embers. Box in eaves and vents with mesh screening to prevent embers from entering your attic.
For earthquake protection, consider retrofitting if your home was built before modern seismic codes. Bolting your home to its foundation and adding cripple wall bracing can significantly reduce earthquake damage. Some retrofits qualify for CEA premium discounts, and the California Residential Mitigation Program (CRMP) offers grants to help with costs.
Shop around aggressively. Don't assume your current insurer offers the best rate or that you have no options. Work with an independent agent who can compare multiple carriers. Some smaller regional insurers are still writing policies in areas where the big national companies have pulled out. And if you're forced onto the FAIR Plan, revisit the private market every year. As regulations change and insurers return to high-risk areas, you may find better options.
Next Steps: Get Covered and Stay Covered
If you're shopping for home insurance in Simi Valley, start by getting quotes from at least three insurers. Make sure you're comparing apples to apples—same coverage limits, same deductibles. Ask specifically about wildfire and brush fire coverage, and confirm that your policy includes guaranteed replacement cost coverage, which ensures your home can be fully rebuilt even if construction costs have increased since you bought the policy.
Get an earthquake insurance quote from the CEA. Even if you decide not to buy it immediately, you'll know what it costs and what coverage looks like. If you have a mortgage, your lender requires homeowners insurance but not earthquake coverage—but that doesn't mean you don't need it.
Document your home and belongings. Take photos and videos of every room, your landscaping, and any home improvements you've made. Store these records off-site or in the cloud. If you ever need to file a claim, having detailed records makes the process much smoother and ensures you're fully compensated for your loss. Simi Valley is a great place to live, but protecting your home here requires more than just buying a policy and forgetting about it. Stay informed, invest in mitigation, and review your coverage every year. The insurance landscape is changing fast, and staying ahead of it could save you thousands of dollars—and a lot of stress.
