Released: August 14, 2007

Commissioner of Insurance Jim Donelon says effective Wednesday, August 15, State Farm will resume writing new homeowners insurance policies in Louisiana's coastal parishes on a limited basis for homeowners customers who currently live in those parishes. State Farm will also write additional homeowners business in inland parishes. This will help, for example, current State Farm customers in coastal parishes who move or build new homes there.

Commissioner Donelon says State Farm officials cited positive changes in Louisiana as part of the company's decision to write more homeowners business in the state. Those changes include the statewide building code and enforcement of the code, which is important to all insurers since structural integrity in new construction is fundamentally important to a company considering writing a new risk.

"Several new companies are currently in the process of applying to write homeowners insurance in our state. That fact, coupled with State Farm's decision to open up their writings, is a positive sign that our state's property insurance market is rebounding following the hurricanes of 2005," says Commissioner Donelon.

State Farm is Louisiana's largest homeowners insurance company, with approximately 32 percent of the market.