BY BECCA JONES
Realtor
Los Alamos County

Dear Editor,

I recently attended the bi-annual meeting of the New Mexico Association of Realtors, and one topic dominated the conversation: the growing difficulty homeowners face in obtaining, and keeping, homeowners’ insurance. This isn’t just a New Mexico issue, it’s a national one, but it’s hitting our state’s homeowners in very real, very personal ways. 

For decades, insurance companies relied heavily on ISO ratings, assessments from the Insurance Services Office, a national organization that scores a community’s fire protection infrastructure based on factors like proximity to fire stations and hydrants, on a 1 to 10 scale. A good ISO score used to be one of the biggest factors driving whether you could get coverage and what you’d pay. For example, Los Alamos has an ISO rating of 1, which is as good as it gets. However, I am hearing from homeowners that they are having trouble keeping their coverage or increased premiums even with our good ISO score in Los Alamos.

The use of that ISO rating as the standard for issuing a policy is changing. Increasingly, insurers are layering in catastrophic wildfire risk modeling on top of, or instead of, traditional ISO ratings. These models assess wildfire probability at a much more granular, parcel by parcel level, and they’re being used not just to price policies, but to decide whether to offer coverage at all, or to drop it entirely in areas deemed too risky. This is also why insurers spread their risk geographically. A company may insure one home on a street while declining the house next door, simply to avoid concentrating too much exposure in one area if a wildfire were to sweep through.

There was some encouraging news I learned about though. The panel of state experts at the conference highlighted a program from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety (non-profit), known as IBHS, called Wildfire Prepared Home, and it’s changing outcomes for homeowners.

A homeowner completes a documented series of home “hardening” measures, such as ember resistant vents, defensible space around the structure, and fire-resistant roofing and siding, following IBHS’s published checklist. Once the work is done, the homeowner applies online, submits photos, and completes an independent third-party evaluation. If the home meets the requirements, IBHS issues a Wildfire Prepared Home certificate, valid for three years, with brief annual check ins required to keep it active.

Things like upgrading vents, replacing roofing materials, or clearing defensible space, can represent a real financial burden for some homeowners, particularly those on in older homes that need more extensive retrofitting. This is where I believe our community has an opportunity to step in. I’d encourage local leaders to consider creating a plan for the county to help fund these mitigation efforts for homeowners who may not be able to afford the upgrades and retrofits on their own. New Mexico already has grant funding available through the Wildfire Prepared Fund earmarked for exactly this kind of home hardening work, and directing more of that support toward homeowners with the greatest need would be a meaningful and practical use of dollars that are already set aside for this purpose. A coordinated community and county effort could help ensure that the benefits of this program, safer homes and more secure insurance coverage for the entire county, not just those who can absorb the upfront retrofit costs themselves.

We heard directly from this panel about real cases where homeowners received a nonrenewal or drop notice from their insurer, went through the Wildfire Prepared Home certification process, submitted the certificate to their insurance company, and had the drop notice reversed. Beyond preventing cancellations, several major insurers, including AAA in states where the discount applies, now offer premium discounts, in some cases up to 10 percent or more off total premium, for holding this designation.

The application fee for Wildfire Prepared Home certification is $125. However, New Mexico residents have access to a state grant that reduces this cost. Homeowners can use the coupon code NMGRANT during checkout to receive a discount, bringing the cost down to around $25. This is made possible in part through New Mexico’s broader Wildfire Prepared Act and its 20-million-dollar Wildfire Prepared Fund, which was established specifically to help homeowners in high-risk areas harden their homes and pursue this certification.

The certificate is attached to the property itself, not the individual homeowner, meaning it transfers automatically to a new owner if the home is sold. This makes it a good selling point in the property’s insurability, not just a short-term personal benefit.

I’d strongly encourage you to visit wildfireprepared.org to learn more about the checklist and the application process. Whether you’re trying to prevent a nonrenewal, lower your current premium, or simply make your home more resilient, this program represents one of the more concrete, and actionable steps available to homeowners right now dealing with issues of coverage.