The average Nevada homeowner paid $964 a year on home insurance in 2020. Today, that same homeowner would pay $1,290 for similar coverage, a 34% increase, according to an analysis from Nerdwallet.

Speakers at a meeting of the Western Governors’ Association on Tuesday in Las Vegas blamed the surge, at least in part, on climate change and an associated increase in wildfires.

“The changing climate has really created one of the most challenging home insurance markets that we’ve experienced,” Colorado Gov. Jared Polis said. “That increasing cost of homeowners insurance is a top-line issue for livability in the West.”

The impact of wildfires in Nevada is mostly felt in the northern part of the state.

About 75% of the 100,000 acres that burned this year was in Washoe, Humboldt and Elko counties, according to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo was not in attendance for the panel discussion with a group of state governors and two Canadian premiers due to a previously scheduled commitment, his team said. Staff from the governor’s office were present, however.

“The Office of the Governor continues to engage with the Office of the Insurance Commissioner on potential insurance solutions for Nevadans, in addition to our ongoing wildfire prevention work with local, state and federal partners,” Elizabeth Ray, Lombardo’s spokesperson, said in a statement.

Since 2017, wildfires in the U.S. have caused over $100 billion in damage, the National Centers for Environmental Information reported.

Over the same period, six of the 10 costliest “utility-involved” wildfires have been in the West, according to the American Property Casualty Insurance Association.

“For several years in a row, the global reinsurance market is seeing record claims, and of course those costs are passed on to consumers,” Polis said. “We have to get our arms around this issue to make sure that people can afford to live.”

Idaho has had a particularly difficult fire season this year, with nearly a million acres of land burned.

While the state doesn’t normally lose any structures to wildfires, 200 buildings were destroyed this year. About a quarter of the structures were homes, said Dean Cameron, who runs the state’s Department of Insurance.

Now, insurance companies are backing away from the state. None have left, but insurers are “tightening their underwriting” and not renewing all of their previous agreements with Idaho residents, Cameron said.

Frank Frievalt, director of Cal Poly’s Wildland-Urban Interface Fire Institute, said mitigating the impact of fires needed to be a “primary strategy” to bring down the cost of insurance.

That includes “hardening” homes with different materials, clearing vegetation away from homes and designing neighborhoods with wildfires in mind.

“The crisis that people are talking about with affordability and availability of insurance is not about putting out the forest fire … and it’s not about how many acres are burning,” said Anne Cope, chief engineer with the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. “For the insurers, it’s about the structures.”

Karen Collins, vice president of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, said the industry was “facing the hardest market cycle in a generation,” citing inflation and an increased number of natural disasters.

Large disasters, similar in scope to wildfires that ravaged Hawaii in 2023, have knocked out insurance companies short on capital, she said. Damage from the Hawaii fires was estimated at $5.5 billion.

“The key for policymakers is to be mindful of … proposals that may introduce new or higher exposure costs, including regulatory compliance burdens, that could potentially exacerbate these recent market conditions,” Collins said.

“Instead, companies really do need tools to manage rapidly evolving risk and cost while also working to reduce risk,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., said in a July letter to the Federal Insurance Office that she was concerned about shrinking insurance coverage in Northern Nevada.

With mortgage lenders requiring homeowners insurance, not having access to coverage could mean losing a home, Rosen said.

“Without access to affordable insurance products — or insurance products altogether — the most at-risk homeowners are left with sky-high insurance premiums, insufficient coverage, or no protection at all,” she said. “It is critical that Nevada homeowners have access to the affordable insurance coverage they need.”