If you're a homeowner in Colorado, there are a few types of natural disaster that might threaten your home. One is wildfire. Another is a severe hailstorm.
Hazards like these are the reason people buy homeowners insurance. But a new analysis released this month says that hailstorms and wildfires have very different impacts on what Coloradans pay for insurance.
As you might expect, the threat of wildfires drives up premiums in areas prone to wildfire. The threat of hail, however, increases insurance costs just about everywhere in the state. And as real estate prices climb, the cost of insuring homes against hail damage is also soaring.
The report by the Colorado Division of Insurance, which is a state agency, looks at what shapes your monthly premiums if you own a home – and it raises questions about what might help lower those costs.
Rachel Cohen is KUNC’s Mountain West News Bureau correspondent. She joined Erin O’Toole to walk through the report and some potential relief for homeowners that state lawmakers are working on.
Homeowners’ insurance is just one element of life in Colorado that’s seeing rising costs. For more, check out the KUNC News series The Price of Paradise.
