On Jan. 7, the Oregon Department of Forestry released the final version of its statewide wildfire hazard map, designating property tax lots as low-, moderate- or high-hazard zones. The purpose of the maps is to educate residents about their level of hazard, assist in prioritizing fire adaptation and mitigation resources for vulnerable locations and identify where defensible space and home hardening codes may soon apply.
At this point, home hardening building codes, enforced by Oregon’s Building Codes Division, are only prospective. The finalized map will initiate future rulemaking to adopt home hardening standards.
While the map, by law, cannot influence insurance companies and their decisions around premiums or coverage, many Central Oregon residents continue to experience premium increases and coverage retractions. According to an August press release from state legislators, insurance premiums increased 30.3% from 2021 to 2023.
The growing challenges are significantly affecting homeowners in more fire-prone areas, like Sisters and La Pine, according to Deschutes County Commissioner Phil Chang.In both communities, he said, insurers are pulling out of areas they perceive to be too high risk or jacking up insurance premiums to continue to cover those areas.
In late June, a fast-moving fire located east of La Pine began moving toward the city, prompting rapid evacuations. At its peak, 1,546 structures were threatened and 492 were in a Level 3 “Go Now” evacuation area. Evacuations like this, according to residents, are not uncommon, due to the city’s proximity to the forest.
Since then, residents and insurance representatives have raised alarms about rising premiums and an increased difficulty in finding coverage. Jacob McBride with AIC Insurance in La Pine worries about the future of the industry in Central Oregon.
McBride attributes the increasing insurance premiums to the high fire risk in the area, along with requirements for insurance companies. The issues we see today, he said, have a lot to do with insurance companies attempting to stay profitable.
“It’s getting increasingly difficult in today’s environment. Not just in La Pine — I would say all of Central Oregon, when it comes to insurance, especially for homes, is increasingly difficult no matter what carrier you have,” McBride told the Source Weekly. “There’s a lot to it, and it’s unfortunate… It’s just a difficult market for insurance right now.”
While the initial release of the state’s wildfire hazard map in 2022 prompted residents to worry about its role in increasing premiums, insurance representatives and state officials maintain that the maps have nothing to do with rising costs. It’s illegal in Oregon to do so, following a bill that passed in the Oregon legislature in 2023.
According to the Oregon Division of Financial Regulation (ODFR), insurers create their own risk models and maps, based on their own collected data. “Whether developing these models in-house or purchasing them from consultants, insurance companies purchase a variety of data to build their own risk maps. The Oregon wildfire risk map reflects risks already accounted for by private industry maps and insurance company rating plans,” read an informational sheet from ODFR, sent to homeowners.
The law that helped create these maps, SB 762, was created to improve wildfire preparedness across Oregon. Commissioner Chang sees the maps as a potential tool for keeping insurance costs down.
“I would expect the map to help improve coverage for people,” he told the Source Weekly, adding that fire mitigation practices in high-risk areas, prompted by the maps, should make insurance companies feel better about issuing policies.
However, knowing the problem of rising insurance cost is being felt throughout the area, Chang hosted a meeting in August with Oregon State Sen. Jeff Golden (D-Rogue Valley) and Rep. Emerson Levy (D-Central Oregon), along with wildfire protection experts and local insurance representatives, to discuss the impact of insurance costs in Central Oregon and beyond.
“Wildfires are changing the landscape of insurance on the West Coast, and our wallets are feeling the impact,” Levy told the Source Weekly in an email.
At the August meeting, insurance representatives spoke about one of the main reasons for the increases, pointing to past devastating fires. The 2020 Labor Day fires resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of damage. Insurance companies are likely charging people higher premiums to make up for massive losses and protect themselves moving forward, Chang said.
Sen. Golden, the architect of SB 762, proposed a bill in 2024 to keep insurance costs down. The bill, SB 1511, aimed to establish and support neighborhood protection cooperatives to promote wildfire resilience within communities.
The idea is that a single house is only as safe as its neighbors’ house, Chang told the Source. Instead of just providing support for individual homeowners, fire resilience measures at the neighborhood scale could allow insurance companies to provide a discount.
While the bill didn’t make it out of the 2024 session, Chang is hopeful legislation like this will continue into 2025.
Rep. Levy also brought forward a bill, HB 3089, which would make fire insurance separate from wildfire insurance to help reduce rates.
While legislation to bring down costs could be helpful for many, La Pine insurance representative Cheri Martinen, with Bancorp Insurance, worries about too much regulation in the industry. If there’s too much regulation, she said, some insurance companies may cancel policies.
“This is hard to hear, but to keep a strong insurance marketplace and have insurance options for all of us, we might need to pay more,” said Martinen. “If we continue to build homes in the wildland fire interface like we have in Central Oregon, then we need to financially take responsibility for the risk that is associated with that choice. This might mean, pay more for insurance.”
This article appears in The Source Weekly January 16, 2025.
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Thanks for this informative article. My sense is that the big home insurance companies are raising premiums to cover costs incurred in other areas (flooding, fires, etc). It’s a way we’re all connected. If you decide to build in Houston’s flood plain, I’m going to help bear the cost of insuring your home. Meanwhile, as we drive over the mountains to the valley, there are lots of large, new homes going up to replace the far more modest structures there prior to fire. So, perhaps our premiums are tied to that also. Hmmm ….
Commissioner Chang may be starry-eyed about the intended results and usage of the wildfire maps by insurance companies. Ours went from 1800 to 5800 in less than 9 months, directly attributable to the insurance companies looking at maps.
We were only able to get insurance at a more affordable rate through a veterans program. State Farm (with whom we had had multiple policies for over 50 years told us we were “uninsurable”. We live in an WUI neighborhood that was built in the 70’s.
People’s rates increase or policies are cancelled on renewal dates. Pricing folks out of insurance will be an issue soon.
If people can’t afford insurance premiums they’ll be unable to secure or hang onto mortgages. Housing markets and construction projects should be taking this into account especially as “affordability” is the driver of construction.