Homeowners Insurance -- tough to get? (Denver, Colorado Springs: house, neighborhoods, buying)

[Ondyne]

Is it difficult and/or prohibitively expensive to get homeowners insurance in Colorado Springs? I am looking at buying, but I'm concerned that the fires have made it tough. Any areas to avoid?

[Teckeeee]

Originally Posted by Ondyne

Is it difficult and/or prohibitively expensive to get homeowners insurance in Colorado Springs? I am looking at buying, but I'm concerned that the fires have made it tough. Any areas to avoid?

Logic would tell me that buying by the burned down Black Forest or Waldo Canyons fire areas would make for higher premiums. Maybe someone from the Springs can chime in.

I would make sure that the roof tiles are composite shingle or clay, most likely composite, and make sure it doesn't have wood shingles. Everyone I know of that bought a house with wood shingles in Denver Metro their rates are 2-3x what rates with non wood shingles are.

[otterprods]

Originally Posted by Ondyne

Is it difficult and/or prohibitively expensive to get homeowners insurance in Colorado Springs? I am looking at buying, but I'm concerned that the fires have made it tough. Any areas to avoid?

It mostly depends on the cost of the home, its condition and what your coverage is like. But there may be higher premiums in risk areas, which would include thick-dry forests, box canyons, and edges of cliffs, among other places.

If your question is if the fires have made it prohibitively expensive for average people in regular neighborhoods to get homeowners insurance: No.

[beezle1]

I would agree with otterprods. You will probably have higher premiums in areas that are heavily treed and don't have fire hydrants., or in some of the areas that are now flood prone after the fires. You might try calling a local insurance agent and see what they have to say about things here, and if you have a particular house in mind, they may even be able to give you a quote on that. And you can always opt for a higher deductible which will drop your premiums (just make sure you can afford the deductible if you need to file a claim).

[CharlotteRJ]

It also depends on the area that you're in.

This summer, we had a contract on a house on the northern end of the Rockrimmon area. IIRC, the insurance cost (~$380k house) was somewhere around 2 grand. That house fell through, and we bought in the Northgate area. The insurance for this house (~$370k) is only about a thousand a year for the same type of coverage.

Check out fire risk on this map: CSFD Wildfire Mitigation

It's a sure bet that insurance companies do, too.

[lurtsman]

Higher costs than before, yes. Difficult to get, no. All the companies will still write policies, they just cost more. It's not that bad though. My insurance is only around a hundred bucks a month to cover rebuild cost of 250k. Note, I live in the suburbs, so less fire risk. Flood insurance is not included, but I countered that by buying on higher land.

[Tim Kealy]

Not all insurance companies will write insurance in all areas. I live and have my office in Black Forest and know the options. You can contact me if you have more questions.

[huffdiver]

Having just sold a house myself make sure the one you buy does not have "t-lock" shingles since you can not insure those either (as previous people have stated about the wood shingles).

As long as the roof is new(er) you should NOT have any issues getting insurance.

[Jcelmer]

We live on the East side of town, nowhere near the fires, floods, hail...etc (at least we were not affected by any of the natural disasters this year). We were very surprised that our insurance did not go up at all. We have USAA. This leads me to believe that increases in premium are very dependent on location. We pay less than a hundred/month to rebuild around 300k. This involves massive discounts for bundling, though.