What Is a State FAIR Plan?

An insurer of last resort, by design

FAIR stands for Fair Access to Insurance Requirements. A state FAIR Plan is a state-created insurer of last resort specifically for homes that cannot obtain standard-market homeowners coverage, most commonly due to wildfire, coastal, or other catastrophe risk that has made standard insurers unwilling to write a policy on the property at all.

34 states plus DC (35 total) currently maintain a FAIR Plan program, according to Policygenius, with Colorado the most recent addition, launching its own program in 2025.

What it actually costs

FAIR Plan premiums typically run 2x to 3x a comparable standard-market policy. California is the most extreme and most thoroughly documented case: its FAIR Plan averages just over $3,000 a year, compared to a statewide standard-market average of roughly $1,480 to $1,571, and in the highest wildfire-risk ZIP codes specifically, FAIR Plan premiums have been reported as high as $32,000 a year.

That extreme figure is California-specific, not a claim that every FAIR Plan state sees costs anywhere near that level.

To check whether your own state has a FAIR Plan and estimate its typical cost, the state FAIR Plan home insurance cost estimator covers all 35 FAIR Plan states directly.

The coverage gap most first-time buyers do not anticipate

FAIR Plan policies are typically narrower than a standard homeowners policy, often covering named perils only, fire, smoke, lightning, and vandalism among them, while excluding theft, liability, and water damage entirely.

Most FAIR Plan policyholders need a separate difference-in-conditions (DIC) policy specifically to fill those gaps, an added cost and an added shopping step that catches many first-time FAIR Plan buyers off guard, since the FAIR Plan quote alone can look deceptively like a complete homeowners policy.