Earthquake insurance in California averages about $850 to $900 a year, according to published California Department of Insurance figures, while Washington and Oregon homeowners typically pay $400 to $700. The catch isn't the premium, it's the deductible: 5% to 25% of your dwelling coverage, paid out of pocket before the policy kicks in.
It covers shaking damage to your structure, and that's about where the similarity to homeowners insurance ends. A typical policy bundles three parts: dwelling coverage (the rebuild), personal property (usually a percentage of the dwelling limit), and loss of use (temporary housing while repairs happen). Standard homeowners, renters, and condo policies exclude earthquakes in every state, so none of this is automatic.
Two carve-outs surprise people. Fire caused by an earthquake is covered by your regular homeowners policy, adjusters untangle the cause first. And your car is covered for quake damage under the comprehensive part of your auto policy, not your homeowners or earthquake policy.
Rates follow fault maps and soil, so the same house can pay wildly different premiums a few miles apart. Statewide, though, the picture looks like this:
| State | Typical annual premium | Typical rate per $1,000 covered | Main source |
|---|---|---|---|
| California | $850–$900 avg (CDI); $1,000+ common for larger or older homes | $2.00–$4.00, over $8 near faults on soft soil | CEA (about 2/3 of policies) + standalone carriers |
| Washington | $400–$700 typical | $1.20–$2.50 | Homeowners endorsement or standalone |
| Oregon | $350–$600 typical | $1.00–$2.20 | Homeowners endorsement or standalone |
A $500,000 wood-frame California home built in the 1960s, in an average-risk area with a 15% deductible, lands near $1,102 a year. The same setup in Portland runs about $457, or $538 without a retrofit. To price your own house, run your coverage and deductible through the earthquake insurance calculator, which also shows the out-of-pocket check you'd write at claim time.
State, dwelling coverage, deductible, construction, and retrofit status. You get the annual premium and the deductible you'd pay before coverage starts.
Earthquake Insurance Calculator →Earthquake deductibles aren't $500 or $1,000 like most policies. They're a percentage of your dwelling coverage, and insurers offer a menu from 5% to 25%. Here's what that means on a $400,000 home, using California average rates for a mid-century wood-frame house:
| Deductible | You pay first | Est. annual premium | Savings vs. 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5% | $20,000 | $1,160 | — |
| 10% | $40,000 | $998 | 14% |
| 15% | $60,000 | $882 | 24% |
| 20% | $80,000 | $800 | 31% |
| 25% | $100,000 | $731 | 37% |
Read that table twice. Dropping from 5% to 25% saves $429 a year, but adds $80,000 of exposure. You'd need 186 years of savings to bank one deductible gap. This is why "cheap" earthquake insurance usually isn't, and why the right question is how much of a loss you could fund yourself, not how low the premium can go.
Only about 10% to 13% of California homeowners say yes, and the share is lower in the Pacific Northwest, even though the Cascadia subduction zone carries a magnitude-9 scenario. The honest answer is a solvency question: if a quake left your home needing $150,000 of repairs, could you cover your deductible ($30,000 to $75,000 on a typical home) plus living costs, and still rebuild? If yes, you're effectively self-insured and skipping coverage is defensible. If no, a policy in the hundreds of dollars a year is buying the difference between a hard decade and a recoverable year.
Two more things worth knowing. In California, CEA premiums are the same no matter which participating insurer sells you the policy, it's one risk pool, so there's no carrier to shop. Outside the CEA, standalone carriers do price differently, so two or three quotes are worth the calls. And if you carry other policies, compare total household insurance spend while you're at it: an umbrella policy or a renters policy fills liability and belongings gaps an earthquake policy doesn't touch.
No. Earthquake damage is excluded from standard homeowners, renters, and condo policies in every state. You need a separate earthquake policy or an endorsement. The one exception people miss: fire damage caused by an earthquake is covered under a standard homeowners policy, and earthquake damage to your car falls under comprehensive auto coverage.
They're set as a percentage of your dwelling coverage, typically 5% to 25%, because insurers need policyholders to absorb a large share of a loss that can hit millions of homes at once. On a $500,000 home, a 15% deductible is a $75,000 out-of-pocket payment before the policy pays anything.
Usually by about 15%. Bolting the house to its foundation and bracing the cripple wall are the two projects insurers reward, and they also make the house more likely to survive a quake insurable at all. Older homes with unreinforced masonry can face surcharges of 75% or more, or be declined outright.
Only about 10% to 13% of California homeowners carry it, according to California Department of Insurance surveys, despite the state's fault map. Take-up in Washington and Oregon is similar or lower, even though the Cascadia subduction zone poses a magnitude-9 scenario for both states.