ORLANDO, Fla. – In crisis for years, Florida’s troubled property insurance market is showing small signs of improvement, according to the state Office of Insurance Regulation.
However, homeowners say their insurance premiums are still sky-high as we brace for another hurricane season.
In OIR’s 2024 bi-annual Property Insurance Stability Report, there is some evidence some prices will continue to rise, and more Floridians could be dropped by their insurer.
Charlotte and John Dole are like so many Floridians, waiting for their property insurance to renew. Theirs renews in June, right at the start of hurricane season.
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“These policies are slowly going up as people’s renewals come up,” John Dole said.
They have lived in their Minneola home for 20 years and for the last few years, like most Floridians, they have watched their premiums skyrocket.
In 2020, the couple paid $2,099, according to premium statements shared with News 6.
In 2021, it increased to $2,640.
In 2022, it increased to $3,408.
And upon renewal in 2023, they were offered $9,653 per year.
“I was just like flabbergasted,” Charlotte Dole said. “And I was just like, ‘why?’ and they said they just had a price increase, and that’s just the way it was. But I live in a very moderate, 2-bath home, no pool, no lake, no nothing,” she said.
They declined that renewal and found a more reasonable rate with another insurer.
The Insurance Information Institute estimates insurance increased 42% in 2023 — with the average annual premium in Florida at $6,000.
The average U.S. premium was $1,700, 11% higher than the previous year.
The 2024 Insurance Stability Report confirms where the state stands county by county.
In Central Florida, Brevard County residents spend the most with $3,202 as the annual average premium.
Orange County is next at $3,100 per year on average.
Then Seminole at $3,050
In Volusia County, the average is $2,608.
In Osceola County, it’s $2,527.
Flagler County’s average annual premium is $2,358.
In Lake County, where the Doles live, the average is $2,241 per year.
In Marion County, the average is $2,039.
Sumter County is closest to the national average at $1,824 annually.
“Being in Florida, I feel like we are punished with insurance,” Charlotte Dole said.
Many insurers have already left the state or gone out of business, but there is evidence there could be more and prices could continue rising.
This year’s report confirms the Property Insurance Stability Unit, which was created to detect and prevent insurer insolvencies, is currently monitoring 19 companies. Three of those companies got on the list for enhanced monitoring between July and December of 2023, two for “requesting a rate increase that exceeds 15%,” according to the report. And one for filing a notice with OIR, “it intends to non-renew more than 10-thousand policies within a 12-month period,” according to the report.
“My God, am I going to have to move out of the state of Florida?” John Dole asked.
“There are emerging signals that the legislative reforms passed in the last couple of years are having an impact on the market,” the report states.
Those signals include six new property insurers approved to write policies. Lawmakers believe more competition will eventually make the prices level out.
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