Which Sonoma County towns rely most on the FAIR Plan?

The 34 ZIP codes the FAIR Plan assigns to Sonoma County held 8,427 of its policies on September 30, 2026, against 2,426 on September 30, 2022. That 247% rise outran the Plan's 150% statewide.

The county's count has nearly leveled off. Sonoma County stood at 8,254 policies on September 30, 2025, so the latest year added about 2%.

Guerneville's 95446 went from 293 policies in 2022 to 1,064 in 2026, and Santa Rosa's 95404 from 332 to 1,053. The city of Sonoma's 95476 and Santa Rosa's 95409 came next, with 680 and 679.

No Sonoma County ZIP code was among California's 40 largest on September 30, 2026. Guerneville's 95446, the county's biggest, ranked 169th.

Countywide, the FAIR Plan covered 2,064 of Sonoma County's insured homes in 2022, or 1.5%, by the Department of Insurance's count. California's share that year was 3.2%.

The coast and the hills ran far higher in 2022. The Plan covered 23.1% of insured homes in Jenner, 16.9% in Annapolis, 12.4% in Geyserville, 12.2% in Bodega and 11.9% in Cazadero.

Just three Sonoma County ZIP codes bore a flag the FAIR Plan carries, both on March 31 and September 30, 2026: Jenner's 95450, Annapolis's 95412 and Geyserville's 95441.

The Plan graded 43% of its Sonoma County policies High for wildfire in its September 30, 2026 file, above 37% statewide. Among ZIP codes with 100 or more of its policies, the share was 87% in Guerneville, 80% in Monte Rio and 76% in Occidental. It was 7% or less in Petaluma's two ZIP codes.

A Department of Insurance table of modelers' scores, Appendix C, rates 16.5% of Sonoma County's dwelling units high or very high for wildfire, against 12.1% statewide. Modelers built that estimate on homes counted as of January 1, 2015.

Insurers outside the FAIR Plan non-renewed 11,123 Sonoma County home policies in 2023, 7.3%, under the state's 8.7%. Rates ran higher in Guerneville, 18.4%, and Rio Nido, 27.5%. Owners who sold or switched by choice count in those totals.

The Tubbs Fire started October 8, 2017, in Napa County, off Highway 128 and Bennett Lane near Calistoga. It burned 36,807 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties. CAL FIRE's page lists 5,636 structures destroyed and 22 civilians killed.

The Kincade Fire began October 23, 2019, northeast of Geyserville, and burned 77,758 acres in Sonoma County before its November 6, 2019 containment. It destroyed 374 structures.

The Glass Fire started September 27, 2020, and was contained October 20, 2020, after 67,484 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties. CAL FIRE puts the Glass Fire's toll at 1,528 structures destroyed, on a page updated October 21, 2022.

Three declarations, in 2019 and 2020, put 29 of the county's 34 FAIR Plan ZIP codes under one-year bans on wildfire non-renewals. Bodega, Bodega Bay, Cotati, Valley Ford and Petaluma's 94954 were never listed.

No bulletin since then has listed a Sonoma County ZIP code, and every ban has ended. How the moratorium rules work covers what each one protected.

Each ban ran a year from the Governor's declaration:

• Kincade Fire: 18 Sonoma County ZIP codes, from October 25, 2019, two days after the fire began.
• LNU Lightning Complex: 25 ZIP codes, from August 18, 2020, the day after the lightning fires began.
• Woodward Fire, in Marin County: Petaluma's 94952, also from August 18, 2020.
• Glass Fire: 11 ZIP codes, from September 28, 2020, the day after the fire began.

In unincorporated Sonoma County, a vacation rental needs a county permit and a yearly business license, which Ordinance 6427 added on May 16, 2023. Each city sets its own rules.

Ordinance 6423, adopted April 24, 2023, applied caps and exclusion zones to parcels in three supervisorial districts. Inside an exclusion zone, the county takes no new applications, and an existing permit ends when the property sells.

Permit Sonoma lists "a significant fire hazard due to topography, access or vegetation" among the grounds for an exclusion zone. The county says hosted rentals may still run there.

Sonoma County's second or seasonal homes made up 3.8% of its housing over 2020 to 2024, by Census Bureau estimates, compared with 2.4% across California. The share was 57.4% at The Sea Ranch, 48.2% in Jenner and 44.6% in Bodega Bay.

Casa's questionnaire covers a Sonoma County second home as well, adding a few questions about how often it sits empty.

Three Sonoma County fire agencies are 2026 Fire Risk Reduction Communities: the North Sonoma Coast and Northern Sonoma County fire protection districts and the Sonoma Valley Fire District. The County of Sonoma is not on the list approved June 17, 2026.

Homes inside a listed community can earn a community discount under the FAIR Plan's discount rules, revised November 2025. The Plan rules on each Sonoma County address, and its sheet notes the discounts may change.

A river or coast home on the FAIR Plan alone has no cover for theft, a burst pipe or a guest's injury. Weigh options that replace it at each renewal.

Ask standard insurers first and specialty insurers second. Most homeowners never see them, because they're sold only through licensed agents and brokers.

To end a Sonoma County policy at renewal, an insurer owes notice at least 75 days (90 days beginning January 1, 2028) ahead, by mail or delivery.