Bill Meyer Show Podcast - Sponsored by Clouser Drilling www.ClouserDrilling.com - 04-10-25_THURSDAY_8AM

Episode Date: April 10, 2025

Steve Yancey from Skypark Insurance talks the outlook for home and fire insurance in the near future, the fire map issue and other news. Open phones follow

The Bill Myers Show podcast is sponsored by Clauser Drilling. They've been leading the way in Southern Oregon well drilling for over 50 years. Find out more about them at clauserdrilling.com. Steve Yassie joins me here for a few minutes. We kind of wanted to get an update on what's going on in the insurance world because there has been so much... I mean, you think there's been drama and turmoil in the stock market, in the bond markets and everything else. Around here in Oregon, Northern California, it's been drama on trying to

get properties insured and there has been the fire map issue that appears to be getting remedied now. And Steve Yancey with Sky Park, I said Steve, let's come in and talk about what is the state of the insurance world in these matters. Are we going to see any kind of lightning up on this one? Steve Yancey at Sky Park. How are you doing this morning, Steve? Great to hear you. Good Bill. Good morning. All right. Good to see you. Okay. Let us dispel or confirm a couple of myths when it comes out there, because I have no doubt people have probably been calling you and saying, Steve, the wildfire map is killing us.

Steve, the wildfire map. How many times did you hear that? Over the... Today? Today? Well, okay. I haven't been in the office so far, but a couple a day, easily. Okay. All right. And then I'll talk to insurance people like you and you say, well, that's not the way insurance companies work. well that doesn't that's not the way insurance companies work. No, no. The relationship between the OSU maps and insurance is really none. They are separate. It just so happens to be that things were heating up about the time OSU put out these maps. So it appears that they're related, but actually they are not. In fact, by law, insurance companies can't use those maps. And in fact, they have their own very sophisticated software modeling mapping programs.

And for instance, we've got insurance companies use companies like CoreLogic, FireLine, RiskMeter, those are actual companies that analyze the risk as far as wildfire. And, you know, it's not just the fire itself, it has to do with the slope of the land. Homes at the top of the hill are much more likely to burn down than on the bottom because, well, heat rises and, you know, things of that nature. Okay. The point being, though, it's kind of funny. You're talking about these companies

that actually do professional risk mapping. I'm surprised that the state of Oregon just didn't go with something like that if they were going to come up with a wildfire risk map rather than having the state university do it. Did that ever strike you as odd? Well, it strikes me as government overreach. I'm not quite sure what their agenda is really at the bottom of it, but it's easy to understand the logic of insurance because they are in the business to make money or at least make enough money so they can survive. And in fact, you know, many companies haven't.

Within the last few years, we've lost some good insurance companies, Sublimity, out of sublimity. I'm not sure if it's Oregon or Washington, but they've been in business over 100 years. And it just ran into the ground, their losses and their, were exceeded what they had in reserves. And insurance companies must keep a certain amount of reserves so they can pay claims. And if it goes below certain thresholds, they're done. And-

They get shut down. They got shut down. And one day I was writing for them, and the next day I get a memo saying that, well, it's over. Just like that. Just like that. And Oregon Mutual is another company. That was a couple of years ago.

I think they're still in the commercial insurance business, but they pulled out of the personal insurance business. So they're no longer doing it. Kemper, that's another one. They're a big company. Now I'm not sure their status overall, but I know that they're no longer here in southern Oregon.

So yeah, it's a bit of a mess. And as far as the future goes, it really is going to come down to losses. I was really hoping that last year was actually looking pretty good that we hadn't had a lot of disasters. And then of course, we get the Southern California fire, which actually costs the largest insurance company which I won't name names but 2.5 billion with a B. That's a big dollar amount. And so consequently, right now we're just going to have to wait and see. And you can't say that just because we're in Oregon and or Washington or Northern California that this doesn't affect us. So if you have a major disaster in your particular region, that's still going to affect the company that we're all buying from, right?

Yeah. There's not separate piles of money for different regions, or are there? Well, there are. Most insurance companies diversify in different states, but at the end of the day, if the writing's on the wall and the fire's coming, then they're going to react, and they must maintain certain limits of reserves, otherwise they're done. Okay. So that's where we find ourselves right now. Yeah.

A lot of people last year, especially last summer, and we're still getting it this year, renewal rates either so extreme that someone can't afford to do it or else just out and out cancellation. Are you seeing that in your particular business right now? What would you say and what would you forecast for this year? Is it starting to lighten up or loosen up after a pretty sporty 2024 for sure? Well, I've seen, I have seen it affect people, their ability to purchase a home. I've had a couple recently, especially high-value homes where the Oregon Fair Plan does not provide enough coverage. So let me shift to them a little bit. That is a little ray of sunshine. Those folks... What's the Oregon Fair Plan? The Oregon Fair Plan is a nonprofit that's designed for folks to purchase fire insurance.

And just for the record, fire insurance, home insurance, and wildfires are always covered under that. So there's no distinction between, for instance, a kitchen fire, electrical fire, and wildfire. I didn't know that. Okay. So there's not separate coverage like that. It's not like, you know, a flood, a flood that's caused by your plumbing is covered, but a flood that would come from Mother Nature

would not be, right? Exactly. Unless you have flood insurance. If it was a different, what we call imperils, then we wouldn't have this problem. Well, we'd have a different problem. If insurance companies didn't have to cover wildfire, it'd be cheap, but that is a big risk

and a catastrophic risk. So when it happens, it's never good. But getting back to the Oregon Fair plan, a little good news about that is I talked to the folks over there and this nonprofit has been self-sustaining. In other words, they're able to take in enough premiums to pay the claims and they've been doing that for over 26 years. So that's a good thing. However, there are limitations to what they can do. And it is kind of a last ditch. Well, it is a last

Resort when everybody else is turning you down you end up going to the that's right in order for me to write with the Oregon Fair plan. I have to have at least a couple turndowns from other companies and unfortunately, that's been that's been really easy and the maximum amount of coverage that and the maximum amount of coverage that they will offer is $600,000. Well, for a lot of homes that's fine, but if you have a million dollar home on the hill and you're trying to finance it, it's probably not going to happen. And I've had many of those to where I've been fortunate enough to get referrals from mortgage brokers and realtors and but yeah, it has changed dramatically.

I've turned away those deals knowing that they're not going to get anything. There's no coverage. It would have to be a cash buyer. Ultimately here, Steve, do you think that we're entering a time possibly I'm not trying to be you know a Debbie Doomer or anything like that but are we reaching kind of a critical level in Oregon and California and maybe even Washington to a lesser extent that the West may become uninsurable as far as property insurance goes for many locales? Well, I'm not quite so pessimistic.

You're not? Okay. No, no. And actually, I've seen a little bit of turnaround. Some of my companies are starting to open up again. So to answer your question directly, I'm hoping that we're past the worst of it and that better days are ahead for consumers and the insurance companies. But I wouldn't bet on it either. It really has to do with what kind of wildfires and we have, and it's mostly wildfires. We occasionally get hailstorms and now earthquake, of course, and flood are different.

They don't affect the insurance companies the same way, at least not the same insurance companies. But if we can have a year where insurance companies aren't losing billions of dollars, then the following year should be a little better and the markets will start opening up a little bit. So seriously, wildfire policy and actually putting those fires out, keeping them from spreading into the residential areas is going to be really key to keeping the rates down.

Absolutely. It's all about the money. Yeah, and if you have huge losses, there's just no way that you can expect, even if the losses aren't happening here, if they're just even within the region, right? Is that what we're talking about? Because it's all- I think there is some separation there because insurance companies usually break out different companies for different states,

but there still is, is that a cumulative effect on the whole industry where they can only sustain so much as far as losses go. Okay. Well, that's just bottom line. It's math. These are math problems that we are talking about. That's exactly what it is. That's a good way to put it. Alright. Hopefully the inflation will tame a bit here because part of the problem of insurance affordability I would imagine is just the increasing inflation on value of residents and then replacement cost ends up soaring and construction costs soar

and so your insurance costs will soar. That's exactly what we're seeing. Not so much now but a couple years ago when the price of limber went way up and the price of which are still up, but relatively speaking, they have gone down a little bit. But yeah, it's absolutely true. When I moved here, oh, 20 years ago, I think the average construction cost was maybe $150 a square foot, something like that. Now we're talking 300 plus. And so that definitely fuels the rates because first of all, what we ensure is not the value but what do we cost to build? And if it costs double to build the house that was built say five years ago, then you're gonna have to pay the extra price. All right. What are we looking at when it comes to automobile insurance and that sort

of casualty coverage? Because I know a lot of people have talked about this. Eric Peters, my automotive guy, keeps talking about what he's seeing with insurance rates. Now, he's in Virginia, with insurance rates and he's in Virginia, you know, different state, but that as the cost of a car has exploded and then your average car ends up being 40, 45, 50,000, $60,000 for your pickup truck or whatever the case might be, that coverage has also exploded for that very reason. Would you concur with that? Yeah. Well, yes and no.

So the cost to repair a car has gone way up. However, there has been, you know, competition plays a huge part. And if going back to home insurance, if nobody wants to take on the risk, then there's going to be a few players and the price is going to go up. But it does seem like that auto rates are actually pretty stable right now. Now they are going up with inflation, but we're not seeing huge increases. We're seeing slow increases over time. So that market is, is, is fairly stable. So it's still really focusing on the, uh,

the home insurance is really your big bug. That's the biggest problem, yeah absolutely. And it really has to do with the location. It's location, location, location. So the further you're away from like the I-5 corridor, the worse it's going to be. So for instance, Central Point, most of it, no problem. Medford, no problem. But once you get outside of the actual valley, for instance, say west of Old Stage Road and east of, what's the name of that road that... Foothill?

Foothill. Yeah. Then you start having problems. So when you start getting up in the hills, it's problematic, but there's not that much of an issue in town, so I suspect that that will remain somewhat stable, but it's the outskirts that really are problematic. Now my property is an example, of course,

you wrote insurance for this with, I forget the name of the company. I think it's... Openly? Yeah, openly. Yeah, that's what it was. I couldn't remember. It was never a new company. It wasn't a name that stuck in my head, okay?

But I know that, you know, things have been going kind of sideways there because even the state wildfire map said that my area is a moderate, of moderate risk, even though I don't really see it all that different from anybody that's over there on Crater Lake Avenue, you know, in that neighborhood. I mean, I've got a, I have a fire hydrant just a hundred feet away from the door. You know, that kind of thing. You'd think that they'd be lightened up on it, but that's, did the insurance companies get that granular with that software that you were talking to me about? Oh, absolutely.

Absolutely. Oh yeah. They look at potential wind speeds, they go through an area, the slope, the vegetation, how much vegetation, how far it is from the fire station is their fire protection. In other words, fire hydrants, fire plugs in the area. Back in the day, we used to use

what's called protection class, ISO protection class, and it would go from like a one to a 10, 10 being the worst, and that pretty much handled it, but those days are kind of long gone. I see most homes are probably in about a three range, which is good, low risk. But I see properties that, you know, they still use this protection class

and they can be a three, but they can be in a wildfire. They could be deemed a wildfire hazard and insurance companies just back away from it. So it is changing rather rapidly as far as, the whole wildfire situation is very problematic. But to say the conclusion out of all of this though, is that gradually optimistic that if we have less impactful wildfire season, that we'll see some relief,

or at least not additional carnage coming our way. Yeah, exactly. And most of it has to do with, you know, obviously the cost of these fires, but also competition. So what we need is more insurance companies sharing the risk. Right now, most of the insurance companies have just stopped writing in these outlying areas. Yeah, once burned, twice shy, so to speak. Absolutely. Yeah, literally. But as time goes on and perhaps we clean up our forests a little bit and lower the risk,

if we can lower the risk of wildfire, and that's certainly outside my pay grade, but that will certainly help the cause. Steve Yancey, Skypark Insurance. Steve, I wanted to say some things that I've been seeing out on the rural lands, which is actually giving me some some cheers up on Nugget Butte a few weeks ago, and that's above Gold Hill. And that area where the power lines was running was just miserably overgrown. I can swear that nothing had been trimmed up there for 40 years from the look of it, right? And I was going up there thinking, boy, this is just a wildfire and a big massive loss

waiting to happen for somebody up there when I would see it. And you could tell that Pacific Power is getting serious about this. And I'm sure the lawsuits have sharpened their minds a bit here. But when I was last up there, and other people are telling me they're seeing this all over, that they had those masticator machines come in, the stuff that chews up everything into just a little bit of rubble on the forest floor. And I was looking at 50-60 foot lines or cleared lines around the power lines here, 50-60 feet wide. And they're getting serious. And so at least the power generated fires,

we may be seeing less of that this year. And that would be a good thing, I hope. Oh yeah, absolutely. It's kind of a trickle down effect. When insurance companies start pulling out and raising their rates, it affects everybody. It affects the whole economy. It affects real estate markets. It respects the mortgage people, just about anybody that's involved in buying

or selling a home. If you can't get insurance, the deal generally doesn't get done. All right, Steve Yancy, Sky Park Insurance. Steve, we appreciate your sponsorship, of course, but thanks for coming in. Well, I appreciate your support, Bill. All right, you take care. All right, thank you, sir. All right, 838 KMED 993 KVXG. We do have some open phone time here on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. If you wanted to weigh in on a good one, now's the time. Welcome to Dustin Curbs parking parking lot maintenance where exceptional parking

lot maintenance services three that's 770 KMED. You know how the FBI buried that trans school killer? You know the the girl or the you know the one that attacked the Christian school. Remember that one? girl or the, you know, the one that attacked the Christian school. Remember that one? Well, Cash Patel, according to Revolver.News, FBI Director Cash Patel is letting us finally get a look at why they tried so hard to bury that trans school shooter. Cash Patel just releasing a thousand pages of the writings and gave it to Megyn Kelly in Congress, and they're starting to look more into this manifesto written by Audrey Hale. Now we already kind of figured out what had been going on with this one. Radically, mentally ill, unhinged, openly hated white people, which she was by the way,

Christians, America, in her own body. In the pages, this according to Revolver, Hale describing herself as a violent extremist. Kill all the white kids, kill my own race, female pronouns make me feel like I want to die. I have to kill so I can be remembered in the most horrific way possible was another thing that she ended up putting in her manifesto. And you know also sharing more of this. Kill all the white kids, every white person who lived and died, I hate you all, I have to kill you so I can be remembered. And you know the sad part about this is that I think

there are a lot more Audrey Hales than they would think, but, you know, the moment that they keep the manifestos away, you know it's not supporting the narrative. I guess we'll just kind of leave it at that. And so what is the state of Oregon's policy? Let's create even more Audrey Hales. Yay. Let me go to Crazy Gene. Hello Gene, how are you this morning? Oh, pretty good. I see you're doing just fine.

Yep, doing just fine. Still here. Still in the upright locked position. What's on your mind? Oh, I'm going to say something that's going to disturb you, but that's all right. Oh, I doubt that. I doubt that. But go ahead. I don't know. We'll check. Anyway anyway, has Colin Uphever heard about the Soul Cube? The Soul Cube? No, I have not heard the Soul Cube, but this is Conspiracy Theory Thursday. Go ahead. Yes, yes. But anyway, there's one on the moon and two more on the Earth. And they're like mousetraps for the soul. Really?

The cheese is getting to come back and live again. So what we think of then as reincarnation, you hear about that, reincarnation in the new age hoo-ha world, right? Or else if you're, like I had mentioned on the dad joke the other day, that when a Norwegian reincarnates he's Bjorn again, right? You know? Okay. So it's because of a soul trap up on the moon, right? Like a mousetrap. Yeah, just like a mousetrap with the keys of life. And what's going on here is this is not a great place to live if you haven't noticed. We are coming back. We're kind of in jail and the soul cube catches you and throws you back in. What an interesting... I'll never look at the moon like I was this

morning. It was a full moon. I'll never look at the same way. There it is, the moon. It's a soul trap. Who knew crazy... Who knew crazy, Gene? You know, Gene, you always make me laugh. You're kind of like Lucretia. If one-fifth or even one-tenth of what you say is true, that's pretty weird. Okay? Be worried, Bill. All right. Be warned again. All right?

Yeah, yeah. Thanks. Be warned again and get thrown back in. All right. We'll give you cheese. All right. Thank you. Hopefully, I've paid my cheese bill.

7705633, can you top that one? The soul trap, the cheese on the moon? I have one to top you. The Flat Earthers are mad at Elon Musk. I promised I was going to share with you why the Flat Earthers are upset. I'll tell you about that next. 7705633.

One of each K4, VIN, 016. Phone service not provided by Dish. The Bill Meyers Show on 1063 KMED. 770-5633. We have a few minutes of open phones on Conspiracy Theory Thursday. 770-5633. And before I get to the phones, I just had to share with you the latest story. And I have people who write me, people who I enjoy talking to, people who I just wish they wouldn't write me about this but they do. The flat earth community and there is a big flat earth community here in southern Oregon. Yes, it's true and I get this all the time and I disagree with them and God bless you. You know, we can all have a different opinion

but I do believe that we are a globe. So I may be the fool, I may be the one that is is barking up the wrong tree, but the flat Earth community I always like to use this just like the trans community or whatever, but the flat Earth community is in shambles they're saying according to the Daily Mail after astronauts released new footage of our planet. Yes, the Elon Musk people. So they put out this video on the Fram 2 mission, that SpaceX flight that has put humans in orbit over the Earth's poles for the first time ever. In this video, Norwegian film director, and I guess he'll be Bjorn again too, and spacecraft commander Janneke Mikkelsen can be seen gazing out the window of the Dragon's spacecraft observing clouds and ice blanketing one of Earth's two polar regions.

And it shows the curving edge of the planet. And the flat earthers are very upset. They're claiming that the footage was actually computer generated or taken with special lenses, because they were saying, flat earthers in shambles on X, and then the flat earthers write back, in shambles, my butt. Complete the circle. Are we in another ice age? Laugh my butt off.

Why is half the earth covered in ice? Stop using curved lenses, one person comments. Another writes, it's too easy to edit this sort of footage. So there we go Flat Earthers and the Round Earthers in conflict. 770KMED let me go to Bob. Bob you're here welcome. Good morning Bill, it's Bob in Medford. Morning. I think with regards to Eugene Emeralds and building the stadium in Medford that one of the prerequisites to the build would be to pave Main Street with yellow bricks. I like that. Yeah, then we need some munchkins now. Follow the yellow brick road! Follow the yellow brick road! Follow the yellow brick road!

Yeah. Follow the yellow brick road to the bicycle bumway in downtown. Oh boy. I'll tell you. Lead to the stadium. Now, were you able to watch that? I was so busy with mom and some other things, I was not able to watch the meeting last night, the session. Anything you heard? Yeah, I have not watched it yet. I think Channel 5 or Channel 12 did a little short ditty on a page.

And Jessica Ayers and Nick Card both said, you know, we need a new jail. We need to increase fees because of the water treatment plant being rebuilt. Yeah, that's coming. You know it's gonna be a big increase. It's down the road and it's not that far away. I think the Eugene Emeralds in their sales tactics saying, well, you know, this is a short time, we need to hurry up, we need to hurry up, we need to make a decision, is something that should bear, that should bear pause and cause before they do make that decision. Now the thing is though they've already made it clear that they said we're going to be in Eugene for a

couple more years at least here so what's the rush? I don't know, you know, it's a sales tactic. Hey there's a nice ballpark in Illinois for sale for ten million dollars maybe they could just move out there. Oh is it one of those things where the the best deal you get on a stadium is after the first person loses their shirt on it right? Right. Yeah. Thank you Bob. I appreciate that. Finally, the yellow brick road. I like that. Maybe if we paved it with yellow bricks and then that we could say the, I'm sure the chamber would then come out and say this is another tourist attraction in downtown Medford. Look at our yellow bricks. But anyway, hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello,

hello. Hey Bill, this is Brad. Brad, how you doing? Well, the SLM. Hey, I got a question for you. Sure. Since we're on public funding, because I don't know the answer, who's paying for that new swimming pool complex off of Ross Stanley? Oh, we are.

The residents of Medford are paying for it. It is at minimum $5 a month on your utility bill. It's $60 a year for the, I think it's 20 years. I'm just spit balling on that one, Brad. So every resident with a water meter is paying at least 1200 bucks towards the roghex. There's also money taken out of the hotel, motel tax, if I recall, the rental car tax

that is helping pay that off too, okay? And was that agreed to by vote or was that just mandated? It was mandated of course. They're claiming that since the voters did agree to increase a tourism tax that this means that it was time to move forward with the Aquatic Center. Okay? That way it was, it was, the vote was implied, Brad. It was implied because there are psychics in the city of Medford Parks and Recreation. They knew psychically that approving that tax meant that they wanted to move forward. Okay? Okay, my friend. See, I'm glad to help. And by the way, I don't know if they thought

that there were psychics in there, but when there's an implied vote, there was never a direct vote. The direct vote actually came from the Medford City Council at the time. Good morning. Hi, who's this? This is Mitre Dave. Hello, Dave.

I have two things. All right. One is a dad joke. Okay. What can you call a Democrats? I don't know. What can you call Democrats? I don't know what can you call Democrats? Jack asked the question. Ask the question.

Okay, I think I get that. Move along. Number two. Number two is remember White Rabbit from Jefferson Airplane. One pill makes you taller, bigger or larger. One pill makes you smaller. And that is dedicated to Pfizer. Okay. You know, I'm surprised that's one oldie that they haven't used yet. All the other drug companies, they're using like, you know, Oh Magic, Oh Zempik, there's Low Rider, you know, Low Rider being used. Why not? Why not have for the mine drugs they have Jefferson Airplanes? I love that. White Rabbit. Beautiful idea.

You know, that was for LSD that the Army experimented in San Francisco with and the CIA. Yeah, too bad you couldn't get Grace out there and go, one pill makes you crazy and ours makes you not. But anyway, yeah, thank you very much, Minor Dave. Let me go to another call. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello? Is this Gary? Yeah, this is Bill. Hi, this is Gary, right? Yes. Hi, good morning. Who's this? Welcome. Hello. Is this Gary calling? Yeah, this is Bill. Hi, this is Gary, right? Yes. Gary, go ahead. Well, I just wanted to let you know that some people don't know that, well, I have chickens and you don't need a rooster to have your hands lay eggs. Really? Yeah. a lot of people think you need to have a

rooster, but you don't. And so I decided to get rid of my rooster and get some ducks because I have a pond. But now my only problem is I wake up at the quack of dawn. Love your dad joke. Thanks, Gary. The quack of dawn. I'll grab one more, then I'm turning into a conspiracy theory Thursday pumpkin. Hi good morning who's this? Hey good morning. Hi. Hey yeah I just wanted to bring attention to Idaho just passed the state law that businesses can no longer require medical interventions like masks and stuff like that. Like you can't require your employee to get a vaccine and all that.

Oh really? They passed that good for them. Yeah, first in the country. But anyway. You think that might be a growing trend? Well, it ought to be if anybody's gotten your sense. You know, the part that really saddens me about that is when I'm out in the beautiful springtime air, everything's perfectly clean, and I see kids wearing masks just walking down the street. Isn't that weird?

I don't know if you look up, watch the stuff coming down, I don't know about that. I don't know if it's weird or not anymore. If you look at night, some of the particulate that's coming down out of the sky is pretty questionable. I just close my mouth. I guess I must be just looking in the wrong skies then. Appreciate the call. Thanks for that.

Got to roll. Conspiracy Theory Thursday. It's a wrap. This is the Bill Meyers Show. Welcome to Dustin Curbs Parking Lot Maintenance, where exceptional parking lot maintenance services are provided to Southern Oregon. From lot sweeping to construction cleanup, pressure washing to snow plowing and deicing, Dustin Curbs ensures properties remain in top condition year round.

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