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Will Home Hardening Happen?

By Charley Rea, Vice President of Communications & Policy

The related issues of fire, home hardening, and property insurance have been a mainstay of casual discussions and policy debate so far in 2025. A recent conference on “California's Insurance Crisis” brought together policy makers, homeowners, insurers, and academics who elucidated much about what's working, what's not, and what needs to change. The issues are seemingly intractable and here is just one example of why.
 

To begin with, it helps to know the cause of the fires. The Pacific Palisades and Eaton fires are only the most recent examples of extreme wind efforts, fueled by atmospheric conditions and funneled through California's mountainous and hilly terrain, that have started catastrophic fires. They send embers afar and soon they are in urban areas where they gain strength in housing stock that averages 47 years of age statewide. While contributing to only 1% of fires in the state, these extreme wind event fires cause 95% of the damage. 

Understandably then, there has been serious focus on home hardening--the idea of removing combustible materials on and around homes. This increases the chances that embers will not ignite, and flames will not spread. The insurance code even allows premium reductions for residents that undertake 6 home hardening measures identified in the Safer from Wildfires regulations. They are 1) clear the 10-30 feet around the home, including placing non-combustible in the immediate 5-feet around the perimeter of the home; 2) new roof; 3) enclosed eaves; 4) fire-resistant vents; 5) multi-paned windows; 6) and 6” of concrete on the exterior base. 

Sounds good, but the regulations allow a homeowner to get credit for each individual action; not as a whole. So, if a homeowner does two items, but not all 6, then there remain 4 items that could still contribute to the spread of a fire. Not surprisingly, it is difficult for insurers to reward limited actions, particularly given they are in a weak financial situation already. Combine this with the fact that home hardening costs $30-$75,000. And, even if a homeowner does all 6 home hardening measures, California law does not require insurance renewal. So, the financial incentives fall short for home hardening.

And those are not the only difficulties. When you consider insurers in California have to use antiquated backwards looking models to justify rates increases, and not the forward-looking catastrophic modeling that can predict risk—and used in most states--we are still quite a ways from solving our property insurance and home hardening issues.

There are solutions in the works, including the Department of Insurance's proposed Sustainable Insurance Strategy, expanding use of catastrophic modeling, creating a secondary mortgage market for home-hardening, CalFire regulations on home hardening, and strengthening the premium incentives; but, alas, change is slow.