- Inside the Duncan Cusick moved from California to Arizona due to the increased risks of wild fire and living costs.
- Cusick’s monthly expenses dropped out of the thousands of dollars living in Prescott, Arizona.
- After retiring from the insurance industry, it launched a local food tour.
After living in Morpark, California, for nearly two decades, inside Duncan Cusick had become an expert on wild fire evacuations.
Cusick, 61, told Business Insider that she had to leave the house she shared with her husband and two children at least five times. Morpark is a north -western car hour of Los Angeles, near where Woolsey’s deadly fire in 2018 destroyed tens of thousands of houses. Over time, she saw how the flames were becoming more difficult to control.
Fires also influenced Cusick’s career as an insurance agent. Between 2015 and 2023, it sold homeowners, commercial policies and vehicles, including for the provision of farmers. But it became more difficult to keep and attract customers as the rates were tripled in some cases due to a combination of factors, Including fire risks, increasing reinsurance costs and California regulations, Cusick said.
“I lost a lot of sales because people wanted to save their security, but I would advise them to keep more coverage,” Cusick said. “They would own a $ 1 million house and a small business, and I would tell those who could lose everything they worked on to make sure.”
Cusick said the increase in wild fire risks – combined with the highest insurance premiums, services bills, gas prices and car registration fees for her family of four – made her realize that it was impossible to retire in California.
It is not alone. Hundreds of thousands of Californians have left the state in recent years, often driven by high prices and, in some cases, the risks of natural disaster.
Residents have one of the highest average energy bills in the country, partly because service companies have spent billions of dollars in the costs associated with the fire that is partially overcome to customers. California also has aggressive climate policies that make oil and gas more expensive.
Willow Creek tank in Prescott, Arizona. Inside Duncan Cusick
When Pandemia Covid-19 gave Cusick and her husband the freedom to work remotely in 2020, they decided to sell their home and move to Prescott, Arizona. They joined many elderly Americans who gathered in Arizona for retirement, citing the lowest costs of living and comfortable weather. While there is little data showing that climate -driven disasters are directly causing mass migration, Cusick’s history suggests that the costly dangerous effects of fires on insurance and services can help motivate people to leave their long homes.
Maintaining thousands per month and starting a local food tournament
Cusick said from the beginning, it was “staggering” to consider leaving her state at home.
“But after we did, we realized that there are so many beautiful places to live throughout the JSC,” she said, adding that her monthly expenses have dropped from several thousand dollars.
They were reduced from their 4 bedroom home, 3 baths in Morpark on a 3 bedroom property, with two baths in Prescott. Cusick said the sale of their home in California gave them enough money for a big payment in the new place in Arizona. Their monthly mortgage payment is now $ 1,672, compared to $ 3,309 in California, according to banks’ statements reviewed by Business Insider. Their service bills and HOA in Arizona on average about $ 373 a month while in California, they can range from about $ 400 to $ 1,200.
Cusick said Prescott reminds her to grow in California.
“It is a very western city in the Arizona Mountains,” she said, mentioning that Prescott is surrounded by a national forest.
Prescott was the capital of the territory of Arizona by the late 1800s, and every fourth July, he expects a large Rodeo. In the city center remembers Cusick for a distinctive action, she said. Prescott’s story, the coldest summer temperatures and the location between Phoenix and Grand Canyon help him attract thousands of tourists each year.
After Cusick withdrew from the insurance industry, it was involved with a local charity and began the prescott food tournament.
“Completely completely the opposite of the sale of boring security, impossible,” she said. “I do not in any way do somewhere close to what I did before, but when you are retired, you have to do such things.”
Do you have a story to share about leaving an area prone to fires or increasing home security costs? Contact this reporter cboudreau@buhsinsinsider.com.