Wildfire risk pushes up N.M. home insurance rates [The Santa Fe New Mexican]

Jul. 25—All the smoke and fire year in and year out adds up to New Mexico having the nation's 13th-highest home insurance rates, a new QuoteWizard study shows.

The other 12 are all in Tornado Alley or prime hurricane territory.

"It's directly related to wildfires [in New Mexico]," said Nick VinZant, senior analyst at QuoteWizard, an online insurance comparison platform.

Everything was much more expensive everywhere in the past year — except home insurance. Some places fall right in line with the "more expensive" home insurance, like New Mexico, but QuoteWizard determined 17 states have lower home insurance rates in 2022 than 2021.

"Home insurance has become location specific," VinZant said.

The highest home insurance rates are in neighboring Oklahoma and Texas and nearby Kansas and Nebraska, all averaging more than $3,000 a year. QuoteWizard averaged New Mexico at $2,071 for 2022, a 13 percent increase over 2021 — the fifth highest percentage increase behind Idaho, South Carolina, Missouri and Kansas.

VinZant also discovered New Mexico had the eighth largest spread between the least expensive policy at $1,600 and most expensive at $3,100 for a certain policy.

"We are seeing a huge range in price for the exact same coverage," VinZant said. "It pays to shop around."

Jerry Gomez didn't think he'd be spending time on that kind of thing. But that was before the Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire destroyed his 2,400-square-foot home he built 20 years ago in Rociada, 20 miles north of Las Vegas, N.M.

Gomez paid $3,300 for $250,000 of coverage.

Gomez now is building a smaller 720-square-foot house to get him by until he can rebuild a bigger home. He expects the full rebuild to cost $550,000.

"I'm not going to get what I lost because I didn't have replacement cost," Gomez said. "A lot of the times, we don't pay attention. I didn't know half of this stuff. It's one of those things. I blame myself. If the government does come in and help us, I think we're going to be OK."

The Hermits Peak/Calf Canyon Fire was just the continuation of decades of damaging blazes in New Mexico. VinZant said New Mexico has seen a 163 percent increase in natural disasters in the last 20 years and 10 instances of $1 billion-plus losses from wildfires in the past 40 years.

"Now New Mexico is beginning to increase at a faster rate than other states," VanZint said.

And those increases are being felt even in areas that don't bump up against the forest.

Bertha Salazar has seen her annual home insurance premium rise from $1,085 to $1,300 in the past three years as the valuation of her two-story, three-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,059-square-foot house in Santa Fe rose from $229,000 to $465,000.

She remembers six years ago her home insurance was only $700 a year ago, but she didn't realize she was underinsured with a $150,000 policy.

"At that time, the insurance company didn't explain to me that I needed to have enough insurance," Salazar said.

But experts say wildfire is a key component in home insurance, particularly in Santa Fe.

CoreLogic in 2019 ranked Santa Fe at No. 12 among the Top 15 metropolitan areas for wildfire risks based on reconstruction costs. Eight of the top nine were in California with Denver; Colorado Springs, Colo.; and San Antonio, Texas, the only other cities ahead of Santa Fe.

Bozeman, Mont.,-based Headwaters Economics in a July report about wood roofs in wildfire-prone areas determined that Santa Fe County's wildfire risk is greater than 90 percent of U.S. counties. But Santa Fe County and Northern New Mexico counties did not make the nonprofit's list of medium to very high wildfire risk counties with an abundance of wood roofs like San Juan, Grant, Doña Ana, Otero and Chaves counties.

The casual observer would think wildland fires are limited to foothills neighborhoods — and, indeed, the Santa Fe Fire Department rates them as extreme and very high wildland fire risk, in part because they often have only one way in and one way out for traffic and fire engines. The urban center gets no rating but is vulnerable, too, with all the arroyos and undeveloped properties flooded with flammable vegetation, said Nathan Miller, wildland superintendent at the Santa Fe Fire Department.

"The whole city of Santa Fe is a wildland urban interface," Miller said. "All the citizens of Santa Fe need to be vigilant about wildland fire."

Vigilance means clearing vegetation within 30 feet of homes, keeping bushes and trees trimmed "and keep anything from extending over houses," Miller said.

The Dec. 30, 2021, Marshall Fire in Colorado was chilling evidence that communities need not be in forests or on hillsides to burn off rapidly. Boulder suburbs Louisville and Superior are flatland cities in grassland. In barely 24 hours, the most destructive fire in Colorado history destroyed or damaged more than 1,000 homes and more than 30 commercial structures there.

"You can't buy a cash value policy in New Mexico," said Carol Walker, executive director of the Rocky Mountain Insurance Association. "You can only buy a replacement cost policy."

Construction costs have increased about 17 percent over the past year and about 26 percent the year before that, according to the Associated General Contractors of America. The U.S. Census Bureau reports a near 50 percent increase in construction spending since 2016 from about $1.2 billion to $1.8 billion.

Wildfire is not the only homewrecker in New Mexico, Walker noted.

"New Mexico is a hail prone state," she said. "Hail can cause more damage than a wildfire."

Home insurance is not regulated by the state as is health insurance.

"It's a competitive market," said Jennifer Catechis, deputy superintendent of the New Mexico Office of the Superintendent of Insurance, a state agency. "We don't set their rates. We can inquire with insurers to make sure they are accurately honoring policies. It's being a mediator between the insurer and insured."

The agency's typical involvement with home insurance companies follows consumer complaints filed with the office.

"There has not been a significant spike [in complaints]," Catechis said.

What there has been is some denial of coverage in foothill communities. But Catechis and Walker insist coverage is available anywhere in Santa Fe.

"New Mexico is not in the same boat as California yet," Walker said. "It's still widely available in New Mexico. Wildfire mitigation requirements could have to be in place to get insurance. You may have to shop for it. You will likely pay more for it."

"Someone hasn't shopped," Catechis said of the hypothetical of not finding insurance in Santa Fe. "Another insurer would write a policy. Consumers can try to do a little shopping. See if another insurer will cover them. If they can't get coverage, they can turn to New Mexico [Fair Access to Insurance Program]. The caveat is F.A.I.R. will not write a policy over $250,000."

F.A.I.R. was enacted by the Legislature in 1969 to provide property insurance to property owners unable to secure policies in the normal market. F.A.I.R. is underwritten by the New Mexico Property Insurance Program.

Home insurance may come with "sticker shock," but Walker tries to put policy costs in context.

"Insurance isn't a huge piece of buying a home," she said.

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