The Nevada County Community Forum returned to a full house on the Nevada County campus of Sierra College Sept. 20, offering the first discussion in the second season of the community-focused series of talks on important issues. Our own Betsy Hamilton joined the forum hosts to discuss the impact of the FAIR Plan on our local real estate market. View the video below or read extensive coverage on the conversation at TheUnion.com.
By Marianne Boll-See (TheUnion.com)
Nevada City, Grass Valley and Truckee are among the highest wildfire exposure concentration areas in the state, according to newly released data from the California FAIR Plan.
The FAIR Plan is considered the ‘insurer of last resort’ for homeowners who can’t get fire coverage for their home anywhere else.
Paying $3,000 to $5,000 to as high as $8,000 a year in premiums is becoming the norm in Nevada County, and that could explain why approximately 250 people attended the Nevada County Community Forum (FORUM) held at Sierra College on Friday to learn about changes in the FAIR Plan and how to earn discounts to lower those costs.
In 2015 there were 141,000 policies — four years later, it hadn’t grown by much and was 159,000 — now there are 420,000 policies.
There have been several changes in the operation of the FAIR Plan, and Phillip Irwin, a representative from the California FAIR Plan Insurance, answered questions from moderator Cheryl Dell, former publisher of the Sacramento Bee, during the Forum to inform property owners who are forced to pay the increasing costs.