| Alabama Homeowners Insurance Rates Soar
Alabamians are paying a lot more for homeowners insurance. Rates in the state jumped by 69.1 percent between 2001 and 2005 - the second-largest rise nationally - despite the fact that Alabamians have lower incomes and are typically insuring less expensive home than in most other states. According to figures from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, the rate pushes the state's average premium for the most common kind of homeowners insurance well above the national norm. Only Minnesota was worse with a 70.3 percent increase. Alabama Insurance Commissioner Walter Bell said the pain for homeowners in Alabama's two coastal counties, Mobile and Baldwin, has continued to worsen since 2005, although there have been signs of improvement in the state's other 65 counties.
Automobile Association lowers homeowners' insurance rates
The California State Automobile Association will reduce its homeowners' insurance rates by an average of 10.6 percent starting Aug. 1, marking the motor club's first overall home insurance rate decrease in more than 20 years. California insurance regulators approved the rate decrease Friday. About 500,000 California policyholders -- most of them are in Northern California -- will save an average of $100 per home policy, AAA spokeswoman Jenny Mack said. The insurer is lowering homeowners' rates because its loss experience has changed and it needs to have competitive rates, she said. Sacramento Business Journal .
Second sister arrested in arson case
Bulloch County Sheriff's investigators arrested the second of two sisters Thursday they said were involved in an arson and insurance scam. Teresa Dickerson Releford, 42, Old River Road North, was charged with first degree arson and insurance fraud after setting her sister's Skye Drive mobile home on fire last fall, said Bulloch County Sheriff's Inv. Jason Long. The sister, Walter Mae Powell, 44, was arrested " a few weeks ago," he said, charged with four counts of insurance fraud. Releford lived in the Skye Drive home her sister owned, where she once kept special needs children, he said.
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