Living in the Sierra Foothills

Hello:

I am interested in moving up to the Sierra Foothills and have been looking at Auburn, Colfax, Placerville, etc.

I know the area somewhat from traveling through many times but not super familiar with the area.

I am looking to have a place that has somewhere over an acre and is private since I am tired of urban living.

I am looking to see if anyone here lives up there and has any advice on areas and especially thoughts on homeowners insurance since from what I can tell this is a problem with the fires we have had.

Thanks in advance.

 

If you dont mind living in rural northern NV, property aka land is cheap. you can easily build something nice on it or DIY single story log cabin with solar.

 

Thank you - I have seen several homes in the Auburn area I would love to own so not really interested in building.

My big concern is getting fire insurance, etc. I know there is some sort of pool for people that can't obtain it but looking for real life experiences.

 

Just make sure you have enough defensive space for wildfire IE 30 foot clearings, limb up trees, bare soil clearings.

 

Fire insurance will ruin your dreams. You will never know when your current insurance is going to drop you. My FIL lives in town, 3 houses down from our fire station. Ins dropped him, couldnt find another and now pays 4x what he did through the state pool. Brother lives in a HOA with a county fire hydrant on his lot. His ins dropped him, couldnt find another and had to go through the state pool at 5x his prior premium.

My neighbor came over yesterday and asked if I wanted to buy his house. Ins just notified him that they were dropping him in 90 days and since it was built in 1890 he couldnt qualify anywhere including the state pool.

 

Earthquakes, Fires, and Floods. All things you cannot get homeowner's insurance for in California without going through some kind of pool insurance. And if you have any type of mortgage, insurance is usually required.

I'm liking the idea of rural living and trying to figure out how to make that happen. I think the answer is to build only what you need to live in and rely on self-insurance. If you have a mortgage, that would be cash or a surety bond. Either would probably be held by the lender. I'm not even sure if you could do that. Never mind that even if you're able to get fire/flood, the deductible will probably be in the 10's of thousands anyway.

 

Thank you - this is what I was afraid of - I have been reading up on this. I talked with an insurance person up there are pretty much told the same thing but pointed to me areas where there is less of a problem but things could change.

So I guess 4 or 5 times equates to four or five grand a year in fire insurance - I guess this will have to be factored into things.

 

Thanks - I would pay cash since don't want a mortgage but being self insured does not sound like a risk I would like to have.

 

Post in Norcal thread. You will be able to get more response.
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/norcal-spotted-and-bs-thread.53517/page-8294

 

I guess I made a mistake - thought I did post there but looks like I did not.

 

We live in the Loomis/Granite Bay area in an older development adjacent to Folsom Lake. Love it.

Dropped by AAA recently, but so has everyone we know around us. Shopped around and got a great deal from Farmers as well as some education.

Someone with more knowledge please correct me, but the agent explained that all insurance companies use the same rating system deploying these 3 criteria. What number they are willing to insure varies somewhat by company, obviously AAA was at the low end of that scale.

1) Tree rating. Not necessarily specific to your property, in our case is was our "sector". Google maps deployed for that one. Our property sucked on that one.
2) Slope rating. Steeper slopes allow fire to travel faster. We are flat so low number on that.
3) Proximity to fire station. We are 1/4 from a fire station. Nice score there also.

Recommend thinking about these criteria when looking at prospective homes. We just squeezed by having to go thru the pool because of #2 & #3, for now.

 

I don't have experience with NorCal fire prone areas, but have bought a house in a flood plain where flood insurance was $5k a year. When I figured out properties I would actually want to put in an offer on I got an insurance quote to know what that would add to my annual costs. A few places I really liked were ruled out due to excessive premiums.

 

The same or similar applies to flood zones. I don't know how the rate earthquakes-I should. So many variables seem to apply.

 

Granite Bay I have been looking at as well but really want something more rural. I was surprised when looking that Granite Bay residents were having insurance issues as well since seems more urban. Glad you got a great deal on insurance.

 

Forest hill and Ophir are also nice ​

 

My wife and I just spent the weekend in a small cabin on 20 acres in Somerset. Since we got back, we've been looking for some land so we could stay up there half the year. Thanks for the tips @JagoTaco. We'll keep those factors in mind.

 

The farther you get up in the hills the worse it gets for Fire Insurance. If you can afford the Auburn or Loomis area I recommend it a lot more than the outlying areas.

 

I'm currently in escrow on a house in Nevada City. Sweet 2 acres all fenced in and private as hell. Fire insurance was almost a deal breaker but if you shop it hard and find a good agent you can get it below $5k a yr (depending on the value of the home). Our best quote for both fire and homeowners insurance came out to $5600. Terrible but it is what it is if you want to live in the area.

The pool insurance is called CA Fair Plan and it's the very last resort. No other carriers, even non-admitted out of state companies, would insure the place.

Good luck! I was born in the foothills and always dreamed of moving back so I'm beyond excited.

 

Congratulations on the new home.

This is kind of what I was thinking on the insurance cost and thanks for the information.

I am getting to the point where I guess if I want to move up there I will have to just accept this cost although hard to take.

 

I should add, since it could help save some $ if you're really looking, is to look for a property within 5 miles of a fire station. And/or within 1000 ft of a hydrant. You will still be forced to go with CA Fair Plan for fire but you'll get some discounts.