How home insurance crisis affects Central Valley home sales
The California Association of Realtors' new report says homebuyers' inability to afford home insurance has led to hundreds of transactions being canceled.
CBS 47's Jennifer Zucker joins us live in studio to tell us how insurance issues are impacting home sales here in the Valley.
Jennifer.
Catherine, a new report showing one in seven California realtors had a home sale fall out of escrow this past year.
I spoke with a local realtor and financial advisor who recommend having a plan of action before writing an offer.
Unfortunately, this is kind of the difficult state of affairs and you can chalk this up to just another one of the several problems that inflation has created over these last few years.
According to the California Association of Realtors, 13% of 200,000 realtors have lost a sale this year due to an insurance issue.
In some of the cases, they can't afford a home due to the insurance and at that point, we don't want to waste anyone's time or get their hopes up writing an offer to cancel two weeks later because the insurance premiums are so high.
Joe Perez with Iron Key Real Estate says those who can't find a policy on the private market most often end up having to purchase one from the California Fair Plan.
Perez says several areas in Clovis, Fresno, Madera and Foothill properties are affected by the crisis.
Those are tight knit communities that are in neighborhoods that insurances are not willing to write.
Perez has his clients reach out to an insurance professional before writing an offer in case the buyer cannot afford insurance.
Jennifer Zucker, CBS 47 Eyewitness News.