Best California Homeowners Insurance Quotes (2025)

Travelers and Stillwater are a couple of the best home insurance companies in California.

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The average homeowners insurance cost in California is $2,160 per year, or roughly $180 per month. Companies like Travelers, Hippo, Stillwater, and Bamboo offer some of the cheapest home insurance premiums for California homeowners, with rates well below the state average. But home insurance is getting harder to find.

Increasing wildfire risk has led more than half of the state’s top home insurers to pause or restrict coverage, and some have rate increases of 10x or more.1 Fire-hardened homes could qualify for discounts, but you’ll still need a separate policy to protect against earthquakes and floods. Given the state’s susceptibility to natural disasters, understanding your coverage is crucial.

Quick Facts
  • Travelers offers budget-friendly home insurance rates below the state average.

  • Standard home insurance excludes coverage for earthquakes and floods.

  • Allstate, State Farm, and Farmers currently aren’t providing new policies for California homeowners.

Best home insurance companies in California

You’re no stranger to rising home insurance rates if you live in California. While finding affordable premiums is challenging, getting quality homeowners insurance coverage is possible. Remember that many types of home insurance are available, and the best choice depends on your financial situation and coverage needs.

Start your search for a California home insurance policy with the companies below.

Cheap rates: Travelers

Best insurer for floods and earthquakes: Hippo

Best insurer for wildfire coverage: Bamboo

Best insurer for higher policy limits: Stillwater

  • Our editorial team spent more than 350 hours developing the Insurify Quality (IQ) Score and scoring insurance companies. The IQ Score objectively analyzes and calculates a score for insurers using more than 15 crucial criteria. The team weighted criteria by importance to the consumer — factors such as customer reviews and affordability influence the score more than availability and third-party ratings.

    We rate each company on a 1-to-10 scale based on five categories: financial ratings, customer satisfaction, affordability, customer support and transparency, and availability. Insurify updates ratings once a year or as more recent information becomes available.

    • Third-party financial ratings: Insurify uses data from AM Best, S&P, Moody’s, and more to compare insurance companies’ credit and ability to pay out future claims.

    • Customer satisfaction: To calculate this score, Insurify analyzed more than 55,000 customer reviews across 155 car insurance companies. We also consider third-party ratings from J.D. Power, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, and Trustpilot.

    • Affordability: Our data scientists analyzed more than 90 million real-time auto insurance rates from our partners across the U.S., as well as available discounts, to calculate an affordability score.

    • Customer support and transparency: This measures coverage options, ease of claims filing, and the insurer’s transparency surrounding discounts, coverages, and claims process.

    • Availability and reach: Insurify scores availability and reach by identifying the number of states in which insurers offer coverage and company size by market share.

Cheapest home insurance in California

Farmers is the cheapest homeowners insurance company in California. Policyholders pay rates well below the state average, making it a financially savvy option for many homeowners. A policy from Farmers with dwelling coverage of $300,000 costs $86 per month, compared to the state average of $180 for a policy with the same limits.

Policies protect against common risks, like fire, windstorms, hail, and lightning, and include personal belongings and liability coverage. But remember that earthquakes and floods typically require additional coverage. Your standard policy may not be enough for complete protection.

The state of home insurance in California

Home insurance rates in California are expected to rise by 21% by the end of 2025, to an annual average of $2,930, according to an Insurify report. This projected increase is 2.5 times higher than the nationwide projected increase of 8% by year’s end.

This sharp increase is partly due to the Palisades and Eaton fires that ravaged Los Angeles County in January 2025 — two of the three most destructive fires in the state’s history. These fires caused an estimated $131 billion in damages, including $45 billion in insured losses, a UCLA analysis shows.

A new insurance model that allows insurance companies to weigh future climate risks when setting premiums could also be contributing to the rate increases.

How much homeowners insurance do you need in California?

Home insurance is essential for homeowners, especially if you use a mortgage to purchase the property. Mortgage companies typically require insurance coverage as part of the lending agreement to protect the lender’s investment from potential damages or losses.

But homeowners insurance is about more than meeting your lender’s requirements — it’s critical financial protection for you. Policies can vary significantly, so make sure you understand your coverage and what your policy does (and doesn’t) cover.

These are the four main components of a standard home insurance policy:

  • Dwelling coverage: This pays to repair or rebuild your home if a covered peril damages or destroys it. You’ll want to choose enough dwelling coverage to rebuild your home if it’s a total loss.

  • Personal property: If a covered peril damages your belongings, such as clothing, furniture, or electronics, home insurance will pay to replace them. Creating a home inventory can help you determine how much personal property coverage you need.

  • Personal liability: If someone is injured on your property and sues you, this will pay for their medical bills and any legal fees.

  • Additional living expenses: If your home becomes uninhabitable, this portion of your policy pays for your temporary living expenses beyond the norm, such as hotel stays.

Important Information

Remember that a standard policy doesn’t safeguard your home against all types of damage and risks. In states like California, where natural disasters like wildfires and earthquakes are common, it’s especially important to consider additional coverage for these events. Peace of mind and financial security might make the additional premium worthwhile.

Risks of owning a home in California

Californians face unique challenges thanks to climate change and the state’s geography. Three of the most common risks are wildfires, earthquakes, and floods. The increasing frequency and intensity of these natural disasters have caused traditional insurance companies to pause or limit new policies.2

The shrinking pool of home insurance companies makes understanding what your homeowners insurance covers even more critical. It also makes it more difficult to get essential coverage against the state’s most common risks:

How to get cheaper homeowners insurance in California

Affordable home insurance in the Golden State isn’t the easiest to find, especially with major insurers like Allstate, State Farm, and Farmers stepping back from offering new home insurance policies.5 Other California home insurers are limiting their coverage focus, concentrating on renters or condo insurance only.

Despite these hurdles, several strategies can help you save on home insurance:

Important Information

If your property is in a high-risk area, you may struggle with more than just finding a cheap policy. You may have a hard time finding an insurer to offer any policy at all.

In this case, the California FAIR Plan might be your best solution. It’s the state’s “insurer of last resort” and offers basic fire insurance coverage and earthquake protection for homeowners, regardless of their property’s fire risk. But it’s designed as a temporary solution until coverage from a traditional insurance company becomes available.6

Average cost of home insurance in California

California home insurance costs an average of $180 per month, or $2,160 per year, for a policy with $300,000 in dwelling coverage.

Cost of homeowners insurance by dwelling coverage amount

The dwelling coverage amount you choose affects your home insurance quote significantly. Higher coverage levels result in high costs because they offer greater protection and increase the insurer’s risk. 

For example, a policy covering up to $500,000 in damages will have a higher price than one with a $250,000 limit, as it places greater financial responsibility on the insurer.

Cost of homeowners insurance by deductible

Your home insurance deductible is the initial amount you must cover before your insurance company pays out on a claim. Balancing the deductible amount with premium cost is an important factor in customizing your home insurance policy.

Opting for a low deductible leads to higher premiums since it shifts more of the financial burden to the insurer during a claim. A higher deductible usually means a lower home insurance bill because you’re accepting a larger portion of potential claims. The table below highlights how different deductibles can affect the cost of a $300,000 dwelling policy.

Disclaimer: Table data sourced from real-time quotes from Insurify's 500+ partner insurance providers. Actual quotes may vary based on the policy buyer's unique driver profile.

California homeowners insurance rates by city

Homeowners insurance rates swing high and low from state to state and even between cities within the same state. Factors like local weather conditions are mostly responsible, leading insurers to charge more in neighborhoods prone to wildfires, earthquakes, or floods. Areas with a history of vandalism or theft may also experience higher costs.

It’s worth noting that proximity to essential services, like fire stations, also plays a role. If your home is close to these types of facilities, you’ll typically pay lower home insurance rates. The table below highlights how much home insurance premiums can vary between California cities for a $300,000 dwelling policy.

California homeowners insurance FAQs

Below, you’ll find answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about home insurance in California. For further reading, check out Insurify’s guide to buying home insurance.

  • What is the best home insurance company in California?

    Travelers, Hippo, and Stillwater are a few of the best home insurance companies in California. They offer competitive rates, specialty coverages, and customizable policies.

  • How much is home insurance in California?

    The average cost of home insurance in California is $2,160 per year, roughly $180 per month. You may need to purchase additional coverages, like flooding and hurricane policies, if you live in areas prone to those risks since they’re not included in most standard home insurance policies.

  • Which company has the cheapest homeowners insurance in California?

    Farmers is the cheapest home insurance company in California, with an average premium of $86 per month.

  • Does California require homeowners insurance?

    California law doesn’t require you to purchase home insurance, but your mortgage company will. But even if you don’t have a mortgage, home insurance is very important, especially in California. It pays to repair or replace your home and belongings if they’re damaged by a covered event, and it covers medical expenses for people injured on your property. Without insurance, costs can skyrocket.

  • What factors determine the cost of homeowners insurance in California?

    California is prone to natural disasters, specifically earthquakes and wildfires, which insurers take into account when determining rates. Homeowners who live in more disaster-prone areas pay higher rates than people in safer areas. Some insurance companies have even pulled out of the California home insurance market completely due to the risks.

Amy Beardsley
Amy BeardsleyInsurance Writer

Amy is a personal finance and technology writer. With a background in the legal field and a bachelor's degree from Ferris State University, she has a talent for transforming complex topics into content that’s easy to understand. Connect with Amy on LinkedIn.

Amy has been a contributor at Insurify since September 2023.