William May’s home in Pacific Palisades was destroyed in the LA wildfires in January 2025. He’s still haunted by the memory of the “fireball burning everything in its path” on that hellish day. And all he wants to do is rebuild his beautiful home, where the retired pediatrician lived with his wife.
Since then, he’s been fighting with State Farm, his property insurer, to get the money he said he needs to rebuild his home. Back in 2017, when he bought the two-story home, he said it was valued at $1.7 million. But the insurer gave him an estimate of only $1.35 million after the fire, and May said he’s driven himself into debt trying to rebuild the couple’s home while they wait for State Farm to reassess their claim. Property values in the neighborhood have increased 50% from $2.1 million on average in December 2017 to $3.076 million in December 2025, according to Zillow’s Home Values Index.
“How can it be worth less now than it was when it was new?”
May blames State Farm’s use of an AI-powered software called Xactimate, which the insurer employs to estimate property repair, rebuilding, and cleaning costs. “They use this reductive method. It’s a phony way of calculating every screw, every bolt, and coming up with a profit for State Farm by undervaluing the house.”
May considers himself lucky, since he has the resources to rebuild, noting that many of his neighbors can’t afford to do that and face similar problems with their insurers. He also blames Verisk, the data analytics company that makes Xactimate.
“I’m pretty sure these companies make these programs just to sell to insurance companies so that they can lowball people because the insurers are interested in squeezing people for profit,” he said.
A spokesperson for State Farm told Capital & Main: “State Farm remains committed to helping our customers throughout the entire recovery process and paying them all benefits available under their policies. So far, we’ve issued over $5 billion in payments to families whose homes, cars, and property were damaged or destroyed in the fires. We encourage any customer with questions or concerns to reach out to us.”
