List of Homeowners Insurance Companies in California Still Writing in 2026

As of May 2026, a working list of homeowners insurance companies actually writing new policies in California is short, but it is getting longer for the first time since 2022. The admitted carriers still taking new business statewide include AAA / CSAA, Mercury, Farmers (which removed its monthly cap in November 2025), Kemper, and USAA for eligible military families on the lowest-risk homes only. Several majors are paused or restricted: State Farm General has not accepted new applications since May 2023, and Allstate has been paused since November 2022. Above roughly $1M in dwelling value, high-net-worth carriers Chubb, AIG Private Client (Private Client Select), PURE, and Cincinnati still write selectively. For wildfire ZIPs where nobody admitted will write, the California FAIR Plan is the fire-only floor, and the surplus-lines (E&S) market handles the rest.

This page is the carrier-by-carrier status list: who is open, who is paused, who is restricted, and where the high-net-worth, FAIR Plan, and surplus-lines lanes fit. It is the companies companion to our broader California homeowners insurance pillar, which covers costs, coverage, and how the hard market got here.

Key Takeaways

• The open admitted shelf is short. AAA / CSAA, Mercury, Farmers (cap removed November 21, 2025), and Kemper are the main admitted carriers taking new statewide business in 2026, plus USAA for military families on wildfire-score-1 homes only.
• The two biggest names are still closed to new business. State Farm General has not written new homeowners applications since May 2023, and Allstate has been paused since November 2022. State Farm's 17% interim homeowners rate hike was upheld in a March 2026 settlement.
• Momentum is real. Mercury and CSAA got California's first two Sustainable Insurance Strategy rate approvals in December 2025, and Travelers announced it would expand California homeowners coverage on April 24, 2026, the first top-10 carrier commitment since the LA fires.
• Nationwide is a split story. Nationwide Private Client (its high-net-worth arm) stopped renewing California homeowners policies, but Nationwide still writes standard new homeowners business in many California counties, subject to ZIP-level underwriting.
• The FAIR Plan is now huge. It reached 668,600 policies by the end of 2025, up 44% in about 14 months, and has a 29.1% rate increase pending for late 2026. It is fire-only and almost always needs a DIC wrap.
• Surplus lines is the fourth lane. California surplus-lines homeowners policies passed 300,000 in 2025 (up 22% year over year), driven by access, not just wildfire risk.
• An independent broker can quote all four lanes at once. Admitted, surplus-lines (E&S), FAIR Plan + DIC, and high-net-worth markets in a single application, which no captive agent can do.

The Quick-Reference Status Table (2026)

Here is the at-a-glance list of major homeowners insurance companies in California and their new-business status as of May 2026. "Writing" means taking new statewide applications subject to ZIP and brush underwriting. "Restricted" means open only to a narrow slice. "Paused" means closed to new homeowners business. Always confirm current appetite, because it changes monthly.

The rest of this page explains each lane so you know which one actually fits your home.

Admitted Carriers Still Writing New Business

The admitted market is the first place to shop, because admitted policies are backed by the California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA) if the carrier fails, and they are regulated on rate and form by the California Department of Insurance. These are the admitted homeowners insurance companies in California still taking meaningful new business in 2026.

AAA / CSAA Insurance Exchange. The Northern California auto club's affiliated carrier (CSAA) is one of the few large admitted markets that never paused new business. The California Department of Insurance approved CSAA's Sustainable Insurance Strategy rate filing in December 2025, and CSAA is preparing to offer quotes to some Northern California AAA members who are currently FAIR Plan policyholders, as part of a commitment to depopulate the FAIR Plan. CSAA still uses brush, defensible-space, and roof-type criteria and will decline homes in active high-hazard zones. AAA membership is required to bind. For the full split between AAA NCNU (CSAA) and the Auto Club of Southern California product, see our AAA homeowners insurance California guide.

Mercury Insurance. California-domiciled and California-focused, Mercury was the first carrier to get a Sustainable Insurance Strategy rate filing approved, in December 2025. Under that approval Mercury committed to adding more than 38,000 new policies over the long term (starting with 6,000+ over two years), with a mandatory growth commitment in wildfire-distressed areas and through FAIR Plan depopulation. Mercury is a frequent landing spot for buyers leaving State Farm in suburban, non-brush ZIPs.

Farmers Insurance Group. Farmers removed its monthly new-policy cap on November 21, 2025, a cap that had limited it to 7,000 then 9,500 new homeowners policies a month since 2023. Alongside the cap removal Farmers filed a new rating plan under the Sustainable Insurance Strategy with a 6.99% average statewide increase and an updated home-auto discount of 22% (up from 15%), per Insurance Journal. Farmers includes the Foremost, 21st Century, and Bristol West brands and underwrites the Auto Club of Southern California homeowners product (separate from CSAA in the north).

Kemper. Writes a more value-tier book and has held appetite on older homes and rental dwellings that the preferred markets decline.

USAA, Garrison, and USAA Casualty. Military and military-family eligibility only. New California homeowners applications are limited to properties with a wildfire score of 1 on a 32-point scale, the lowest possible, which excludes most foothill and brush-adjacent homes.

Liberty Mutual / Safeco and Travelers. Both still write selective California business with tighter brush, roof-age, and ZIP appetite than in 2022. Travelers is the one to watch: on April 24, 2026 it announced voluntary participation in the Sustainable Insurance Strategy and plans to expand homeowners availability statewide, the first commitment from a top-10 carrier since the January 2025 LA fires.

Carriers Paused or Restricted (The Ones You'll Read About but Can't Buy)

If a search told you State Farm or Allstate is the "best" homeowners insurance company in California, it is out of date for new business. These are the major names that are not open, or only barely open, to new homeowners applications in 2026.

State Farm General. Paused. State Farm stopped accepting new California homeowners applications in May 2023 and has not reopened as of May 2026. It remains the state's largest property insurer by force, but it is closed to new buyers. In March 2026 the Department of Insurance, Consumer Watchdog, and State Farm reached a settlement that kept State Farm's 17% interim homeowners rate increase in place while reducing condo and rental-dwelling rates and issuing refunds with interest. Per Insurance Journal, the settlement also extended State Farm's non-renewal moratorium for at least another year, so existing customers have some protection even though new buyers are shut out. Existing customers should not assume their policy is safe forever; if you get a non-renewal notice, our California non-renewal page walks through the triage.

Allstate. Paused. Allstate stopped writing new homeowners, condo, and commercial policies in California in November 2022 and has not reopened. It has repeatedly signaled it would re-enter once catastrophe modeling and reinsurance pass-through were both available, but as of May 2026 it had not publicly confirmed a filed-and-approved Sustainable Insurance Strategy rate. It remains in the announced cohort of likely returning carriers, behind Mercury, CSAA, and Travelers. In California, Allstate-branded agents often sell auto only and place homeowners elsewhere.

Nationwide. This one is widely misreported, so it is worth getting exactly right. Nationwide has two relevant books in California. Nationwide Private Client, its high-net-worth subsidiary, announced it would stop renewing all California homeowners policies (with non-renewals running into 2025), which is the version that made headlines. But Nationwide's standard homeowners line is still writing new business in many California counties, subject to ZIP-level underwriting and brush restrictions. So "Nationwide homeowners insurance California" is best described as restricted rather than closed: available for standard risks in many counties, no longer an option through the Private Client HNW channel. Confirm current appetite for your specific ZIP before relying on it.

High-Net-Worth Carriers ($1M+ Dwellings)

If your home's rebuild cost is north of roughly $1M, you should not be shopping the mid-market admitted shelf at all. You want a private-client carrier that writes extended or guaranteed replacement cost and still has appetite in California. These carriers sell exclusively through brokers, never direct.

Chubb Personal Risk Services. The benchmark high-net-worth carrier in California, A.M. Best A++ rated, and one of the few that has continued to write some Palisades-adjacent and brush-exposed enclaves where mid-market admitted carriers will not. Chubb tightened defensible-space, Class-A roof, and brush requirements significantly after the LA fires but remains active. Increasingly uses non-admitted (E&S) paper for the highest-hazard California homes.

AIG Private Client (Private Client Select). Operating as Private Client Select after AIG's restructuring. Coastal and high-value California appetite, bundling auto, excess liability, valuables, and watercraft. Broker-only.

PURE Insurance. A reciprocal exchange (members own the company), generally requiring a $1M+ dwelling value and a referral. Active in high-net-worth California despite the hard market.

Cincinnati Insurance. Its Executive Capstone program is a lower-profile but well-regarded HNW option through appointed agents. Vault and Berkley One round out the smaller specialty HNW field.

For a full breakdown of how the high-value market works, including guaranteed replacement cost, cash-out options, and scheduling fine art and jewelry, see our high-value home insurance pillar.

The California FAIR Plan: The Residual Fire-Only Floor

The California FAIR Plan is the state's insurer of last resort, a syndicated pool of all admitted property insurers required by law to provide basic fire coverage to homeowners who cannot find it in the voluntary market. It is not a normal "company" you choose; it is the floor you land on when no admitted carrier will write you. As of the end of 2025 the FAIR Plan held 668,600 policies, up 44% in about 14 months, and its total exposure jumped sharply over the same window. The FAIR Plan also has a 29.1% rate increase pending for late 2026.

Two things define the FAIR Plan as an option:

1. 1.
   It is fire-only. A FAIR Plan policy covers fire, lightning, internal explosion, smoke, and a handful of additional perils. It does not cover liability, theft, water damage, falling objects, or most of what a standard HO-3 includes. To get back to full HO-3 equivalence, most policyholders pair it with a Difference In Conditions (DIC) wrap from a surplus-lines carrier.
2. 2.
   It should be your floor, not your first call. Exhaust the admitted market first, then high-net-worth carriers above $1M dwelling, then the FAIR Plan + DIC stack as the fallback.

We cover the FAIR Plan in depth in our California FAIR Plan pillar, the DIC wrap structure, and the alternatives to FAIR Plan placement. For the basics, start with what is the California FAIR Plan and our FAIR Plan vs admitted carrier comparison.

Surplus-Lines (E&S) Carriers: The Access Lane

When no admitted carrier will write your home and you want broader coverage than a FAIR Plan fire policy, surplus-lines (excess and surplus, or E&S) carriers are the fourth lane. These are non-admitted insurers (Lloyd's syndicates, specialty programs, and the E&S arms of carriers like Chubb and AIG) that can price and underwrite outside Proposition 103 rate review, which lets them write risks the admitted market declines.

The California surplus-lines homeowners market has exploded. Per Insurance Journal, surplus-lines homeowners policies in California passed 300,000 in 2025, a 22% jump in a single year and a level without precedent in the state. Notably, this surge is being driven by access (admitted carriers simply not writing) rather than worsening hazard: the underlying wildfire exposure of the E&S book actually fell from 2020 to 2025, and roughly 90% of E&S placements are now urban homes.

The tradeoffs to understand before binding a surplus-lines homeowners policy:

• No CIGA backstop. Non-admitted carriers are not covered by the California Insurance Guarantee Association if they become insolvent. This is the single most important difference versus an admitted policy.
• Less rate and form regulation. Surplus-lines policies can carry broader exclusions and non-standard forms. Read the policy, not just the price.
• A surplus-lines tax and stamping fee apply on top of premium.

Surplus lines is the right answer for many California homes that the admitted market won't touch, but it should be a deliberate choice, not a default. A broker who can place admitted, FAIR Plan, and E&S all knows when E&S is actually the best of the four lanes.

How an Independent Broker Accesses All Four Lanes

The structural fact about the California market in 2026 is that no single carrier writes every ZIP, every brush score, and every dwelling value competitively, and the four coverage lanes (admitted, surplus-lines, FAIR Plan + DIC, and high-net-worth) each require different appointments and filings to access. A captive agent can show you one carrier's appetite. A direct quote site can show you a handful of admitted carriers that happen to advertise. Neither can run your home against the FAIR Plan, layer a DIC wrap, place a surplus-lines policy, and check the HNW market in one pass.

That is what an independent brokerage does. Latent Insurance Services holds appointments across 20+ carriers writing California homeowners coverage, plus FAIR Plan placement and surplus-lines and DIC programs. We run one application against all four lanes and bring back the best fits with the rating, CIGA status, and coverage gaps flagged side by side. For the step-by-step, see our guide to getting California homeowners insurance quotes across every market in one shot, or our head-to-head ranking of the best homeowners insurance in California.

If you are shopping because your carrier just non-renewed you, the California non-renewal page walks through the 75-day clock and your three lanes back to coverage, and our national guide on what to do after being dropped by your homeowners insurance covers the full recovery sequence. For real-time tracking of carrier filings and FAIR Plan counts, see our California homeowners insurance market news tracker.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the full list of homeowners insurance companies still writing in California in 2026?

The admitted carriers taking new statewide homeowners business in California in 2026 are AAA / CSAA, Mercury, Farmers (cap removed November 2025), and Kemper, plus USAA for military families on the lowest-risk homes only. High-net-worth carriers Chubb, AIG Private Client (Private Client Select), PURE, and Cincinnati write $1M+ dwellings through brokers. The California FAIR Plan writes fire-only coverage as the insurer of last resort, and surplus-lines (E&S) carriers write non-admitted policies when no admitted carrier will. State Farm and Allstate are paused to new business; Nationwide and Travelers are restricted but partly open.

Does Nationwide write homeowners insurance in California?

Partly. Nationwide's standard homeowners line still writes new business in many California counties subject to ZIP-level underwriting and brush restrictions, so it is an option for standard risks. However, Nationwide Private Client (its high-net-worth subsidiary) stopped renewing California homeowners policies, so it is no longer an option for high-value homes through that channel. Confirm current appetite for your specific ZIP before relying on Nationwide, because availability varies by county.

Is State Farm writing new homeowners insurance in California?

No. State Farm General stopped accepting new California homeowners applications in May 2023 and had not reopened as of May 2026. It remains the state's largest property insurer for existing customers, and a March 2026 settlement kept its 17% interim homeowners rate increase in place while extending its non-renewal moratorium for existing policyholders for at least another year. New buyers cannot purchase a State Farm homeowners policy in California right now.

Who is the most open homeowners insurance company in California right now?

AAA / CSAA and Mercury are generally the most open large admitted markets in 2026. CSAA never paused new business and got a Sustainable Insurance Strategy rate approval in December 2025, and Mercury got the first SIS approval the same month with a committed growth plan of 38,000+ new policies. Farmers reopened broadly after removing its monthly cap in November 2025. Actual eligibility still depends heavily on your ZIP, brush score, roof type, and claims history.

What do I do if no homeowners insurance company will write my California home?

Work the four lanes in order: exhaust the admitted market (AAA/CSAA, Mercury, Farmers, Kemper, plus Travelers and Liberty case by case), then check high-net-worth carriers if your dwelling is above $1M, then get a surplus-lines (E&S) quote for broader coverage, then fall back to the California FAIR Plan plus a DIC wrap as the floor. An independent broker can run all four lanes in a single application, which is the fastest way to find the one carrier that will write your specific home.

Are surplus-lines (non-admitted) homeowners policies safe in California?

Surplus-lines policies are legitimate and often the only way to insure a California home the admitted market declines, but they carry one key difference: they are not backed by the California Insurance Guarantee Association (CIGA) if the carrier becomes insolvent. They also face less rate and form regulation, so coverage and exclusions vary. Used deliberately (and ideally placed with a well-rated E&S carrier through a broker who can compare it against admitted and FAIR Plan options), surplus lines is a sound tool, not a red flag.

How Latent Insurance Services Helps

Latent Insurance Services is a licensed independent California brokerage (NPN #20972791) that quotes all four California homeowners lanes in one application: admitted carriers, surplus-lines (E&S), the FAIR Plan plus a DIC wrap, and the high-net-worth private-client market. We hold appointments across 20+ carriers writing California homeowners coverage and we are not captive to any one of them, so we have no incentive to steer you to a particular company. We run your home against the full market, surface the best fits with the rating, CIGA status, and coverage gaps flagged, and tell you plainly which lane actually fits your ZIP, your brush score, and your budget.

If you want a real-market comparison instead of a one-carrier quote, book a 20-minute call and we'll compare every option across admitted, surplus, FAIR Plan + DIC, and HNW markets.