A home is the biggest investment most people ever make. That’s why people are willing to spend big bucks on their homeowners insurance policy, which is supposed to help cover the costs of any unexpected damages.
However, homeowners in one Arizona county say they were forced to scramble to find insurance after several carriers pulled out of the region.
According to The Nevada Independent, increased wildfire risk is to blame.
Now, residents in the area say they are struggling to find coverage. And they aren’t alone as many insurance carriers across the country are pulling out of certain areas due to increased risks.
Washoe County Homeowners Received Letters About Their Insurance
The trouble began in 2024, when Linda and John Miller received a letter from their insurance carrier, informing them that the company decided to pull out of the state of Nevada due to the risk of disasters like wildfires. The couple, who had lived in their southwest Reno community for years, said that they were stunned since they lived within a Firewise community—a designation given to regions that work to reduce wildfire risks.
Soon after, their neighbors in the Mount Rose Highway corridor began receiving similar letters, which is when the couple discovered that they weren’t alone. According to The Nevada Independent, while these cancellations and non-renewals only accounted for “about one third of 1 percent” of the Nevada policies cancelled in 2024, more than 60 percent of those cancellations happened in Washoe County, resulting in the termination of 1,600 policies.
Fortunately, the Millers were able to sign on with one of the 80 other insurance carriers that the publication says are still issuing policies in the state.
The Homeowners Insurance Issue Isn’t Limited to Arizona
Washoe County’s plight is compelling, but these homeowners are hardly alone. According to a 2025 report from Harvard Business School, climate change is disrupting the insurance market across the country. Spencer Glendon, a Harvard Business School executive fellow, says the problem stems from the fact that insurance companies haven’t adjusted enough to the Earth’s changing climate.
“Engineers, architects, developers, builders—they just followed the rules,” Glendon said. “They just followed the norms. They just followed the standards. And so they didn’t think about risk.”
And that risk isn’t limited to wildfires, like in Washoe County. Hurricanes and flooding are also driving up insurance costs, causing premiums to skyrocket in places like Florida, where CBS News reports that nine insurance companies went “insolvent” between 2021 and 2023. In places like California, CNN says major carriers like State Farm are facing scrutiny over its insurance footprint after the company pulled back on issuing new policies in the state.
Unfortunately, this is leaving many homeowners across the U.S. holding the bag as they search for new (and affordable) ways to protect their property, and possibly even causing some to reconsider how their zip code will affect their insurance options in the future.