Someone brought up EQ insurance on another thread, and I replied that almost no one has EQ insurance. I don’t, and I only know of one person that does, and I’ve asked probably 20 people.
So, west coasters, especially LA or Bay Area folks (ruffmike, madmadscientist, et al.) let me ask:
Do you have earthquake insurance? What’s your guess of % of folks you know?
No judgements, just taking a poll.
k
Replies
Hi KFC I have family with 3 homes in San Diego and 1 in LA not one is insured for earthquake - way expensive and super high deductable.
OK, that's two-zero for no EQ insurance (I'm the other one, no EQ insurance on a near 600k house in Berkeley).
The poll continues...
k
Edit- or five-zero if your going by total # of houses.
Edited 2/20/2009 1:35 am ET by KFC
I have it in North Carolina. each year it gets more expensive.
What's N. Carolina's EQ history?
k
There was a big one late 1800s leveled alot of buildings.
We have it on our house. It's our single greatest investment, as I had to cash out my 401K to get it.
What, are you counting on the government to help you out if your house gets shook down?
Tu stultus es
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
I had it for three years, but cancelled it a while back.
I looked at the cost versus the coverage, and decided it made more sense to throw that money into retrofitting. I wouldn't have been able to afford to rebuild under my old policy anyway.
I think a lot of folks are counting on the government if a 8-9 rolls through. I'm not, really.
I feel I'd be s.o.l. whether I had the insurance or not, is all, so I'd rather spend the $ on shear walls and earthquake supplies.
Our block has a cache of supplies (generator, first aid, axes, cribbing, etc.) and I have my personal stash of goodies. Most of us have taken disaster first aid, fire suppresion and search and recue classes. But actuarially, I just couldn't bring myself to buy the offered insurance.
k
My mom is in Watsonville, between Santa Cruz & Monterrey: (Close to Hollister and the Loma Prietta epicenter)
No!
We had it for her many years ago but cost grew too much and deductibles make it nearly worthless.
You're better off taking a chance and getting the federal disaster relief low interest loans/gifts. We're getting screwed by the gov't anyway, why pay an insurance company big bucks to turn you down later?
...The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home....aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
Edited 2/20/2009 2:52 am by oldbeachbum
I'm on the West Coast of British Columbia and I have earthquake insurance. Our place isn't worth too much so the insurance is affordable. If the big one hits us I can't afford to rebuild. We get a few earthquakes here every year but they are rarely felt. Sometime between now and 200 years from now we are basically gauranteed a 9.0 off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Subduction zones are nasty!
My mother's place is a modest 2 br tract home built for seniors only in the mid '70s. In the mid '80s the insurance company she had stated that her deductible would be 50% of the insured amount and that the pay out would be 75% of the remainder.
This was the stuff they came up with when the state forced them to offering an optional coverage. Their formulas and language changed but always remained too high to be viable for retired people on low fixed income.
Now that she is 97 and I am on the deed I'm not going to worry about it. Something major goes wrong and she comes here, with us and I'll raze it and write the loss off....The unspoken word is capital. We can invest it or we can squander it. -Mark Twain...Be kind to your children....they will choose your nursing home....aim low boys, they're ridin' shetland ponies !!
Glad they've narrowed it down so much, You do know the Mayan calendar runs out in 2012 or something so anything after that is a moot point.
I think the Mayan calander ran out a looong time ago - like the 1500's.
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
no 2012
The Mayan Calender, the Greek, Roman, Soviet... if the society that made it has gone, then the calender has run out.
Tu stultus esRebuilding my home in Cypress, CAAlso a CRX fanatic!
Look, just send me to my drawer. This whole talking-to-you thing is like double punishment.
Tom Tuttle Tacoma Washington & I have earthquake insurance about 300 bucks per year IIRC.
$300 a year? not bad at all. what's your coverage/deductible?
k
Gawd you made me go look it up ;-)
279 a year premium.
250 or 10% deductible whichever is greater.
Coverage on structures only, just over a quarter mil----- I better up that unless I plan on building for 125 bucks per square foot.
I've lived in San Jose for over 35 years and have never had it. IMHO, it's cost is just way too high. We've survived numerous quakes over the years - including the Loma Prieta quake in '89 - with no problems at all.
Yes, I know that I'm gambling. The "big one" will come someday, but the question is "Which Day"? I guess it's fair to say that I'm betting that (a)I won't be here, or (b)there will be billions available in disaster relief (ala Katrina) which will minimize my financial losses.
I live in Maine and I have earthquake insurance. Here, it's pretty cheap, what with no earthquakes lately.
I live in Maine and I have earthquake insurance. Here, it's pretty cheap, what with no earthquakes lately.
LOL! How much is EQ insurance in Maine, anyway. Probably similar to my coverage rates for snow damage...
Which actually touches on my reasoning for not having it- insurance companies are for profit institutions. If there is a serious risk, they have an incentive to deny coverage, or charge so much that it is questionably valuable to the HO as an investment. But if there's little or no risk to their $, well, then sure, EQ insurance in Maine? No prob.
They're for-profit. I don't have a philosophical issue with that. But at some point, it becomes a questionable investment.
But Anyway... I'm more interested in a numbers count than the underlying reasoning, for now at least. Thanks to all who've responded so far! (And to Plumbill, who I made look up is HO insurance policy, good man)
keep the poll responses coming!
k
Earthquake ins. is about $300 per year, about 10% of my total HO coverage, for a house with replacement cost of (only in my wildest dreams) 875K. Its yours for half that if interested:-). If it ever was lost in a quake, I don't know how I would replace the mud, brick, stone and inertia foundation, not to mention the quaint lack of anything level or plumb. The problem is that if you don't buy enough coverage to replace it, if you suffer a partial loss, say 50%, you only get paid 50% of what the coverage was, which may not be enough to repair.
When we bought the house about 15 years ago, we looked into it and there is a slim possibility of a significant earthquake around here.
Insurance is supposed to be for unlikely events, but it is tough to decide what is so unlikely that it is worth taking a risk of not being covered. For example, we're on a hill, so flood insurance is not worth it. But if I see Noah building another boat and collecting critters, I may reevaluate.
Many insurance companies quit writing earthquake coverage in SoCal after the North Ridge quake, about eleven-twelve years ago. All State was one such.
This house, only five-six miles from the center of that event, has been covered for earthquake damage, currently limited to replacement cost of about $200K, for many years. No big deductable either and the premium isn't that bad.
The policy is with a big company, SafeCo I believe.
If anyone in SoCal would like the name and number of the agency which insures this house, let me know.
We're in Berkeley, and we don't have it. Every once in a while I run into someone who does have it, but it's pretty rare. I did put the money and effort into seismic retrofits, which in my opinion is much better insurance.
Last I looked, the state plan would cost me ~$1000 a year, and has a 20% deductable. So asuming a median house value (not including land) of $250k, that means you have to suffer and pay for $50k of damage before they start paying anything, and that doesn't even include the accumulated premium. Given that I've already lost most of my equity due to this downturn, and that any earthquake that caused $50k of damge to my house is likely to take down half of my neighborhood, it just doesn't add up for me. Or anyone I know.
Live on an island in the SF Bay mostly fill and I don't have it. I don't know anyone here who does either.
Way expensive, crappy covereage as to be functionally useless.
Why do you think the Marina in SF burned?
Wasn't an accident regular HO insurance will pay out if a house burns in an earthquake if you can convince the insurance company the house was fine before it caught fire....least that was what the thinking was of several people I knew who had houses there.
Insurance company paid to have the places rebuilt too...
Daniel Neumansky
Restoring our second Victorian home this time in Alamdea CA. Check out the blog http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
Oakland CA
Crazy Homeowner-Victorian Restorer
Most mortgage providers here make it a condition for providing financing so almost everyone has it. My home insurance including earthquake was $475 last year.
Most mortgage providers here make it a condition for providing financing so almost everyone has it.
Holy mackerel if the mortgage and ins guys ever colluded like that in CA the ins guys would make billions....whew glad they don't...yet
Daniel Neumansky
Restoring our second Victorian home this time in Alamdea CA. Check out the blog http://www.chezneumansky.blogspot.com/
Oakland CA
Crazy Homeowner-Victorian Restorer
When I had my house in Oakland, I didn't buy EQ insurance. Reasons:
1. Coverage was ridiculously expensive (house was in a soil liquefaction zone).
2. High deductible.
3. Single story house, wood-frame construction mostly bolted to its foundation made it a better bet for survival than a lot of the surrounding buildings, with their poorly supported second floors over carports, and the like (exception: unreinforced masonry fireplace). Figured my house would not be a total loss, but a significant partial loss that would mostly go toward the deuctible.
4. When I bought the house, I planned to sink money into retrofits (such as the bolting of the foundation). I did some of it, then quit when I started looking for a job at the other end of the state.
5. Any quake big enough to make the insurance payout worth the premiums would likely be doing massive damage to infrastructure and possibly causing fires, as well. I'd be screwed anyway, so what would be the point. Well, this was actually a rather irrational rationalization; really, it just combined with the deteriorating neighborhood, falling home values, frustration at work, and my fiance's intensifying desire to be near his family, to motivate me to find another job and move.Now I'm renting, so if a quake damages this house, it's the owner's problem.Rebeccah
As I posted in the Tavern, I had it until we remodeled and retrofitted, then canceled it.
Mike
Small wheel turn by the fire and rod, big wheel turn by the grace of god.
Ah, the tavern. I've got enough issues with brick and mortar taverns, lol, I've never entered the virtual tavern. I only admitted I live in Berkeley recently, can you imagine how that would have gone in the tavern last year?...
But, likewise, I had EQ insurance for a few years, and cancelled as well. Didn't seem actuarially worth it.
k
San Diego area here. We got the EQ coverage for a few years until I was a little more confident, then stopped it. Getting rid of the unreinforced chimney and adding a bunch of shearwalls and foundation bolts helped make the determination. Any quake that totals our house will total the neighborhood.
That said, I still have some retrofit work to do, but it has to be as a part of a major project we are not ready to begin yet.
It amazes me how well stucco-on-frame holds up to earthquakes, and how many homes in bigger quakes survived because the stucco sacrificed its life for the house.
Bill
It amazes me how well stucco-on-frame holds up to earthquakes, and how many homes in bigger quakes survived because the stucco sacrificed its life for the house.
I like that image- taking one for the team, kind of like the crumple zones in a car.
k
I'm in New York and have it. $78 per year for a 2500 square foot home.