Will Florida’s High Homeowners Insurance Premiums Continue in 2023?
According to the Insurance Information Institute, the pain Florida homeowners have been feeling in recent years regarding sky high homeowners premiums will continue in 2023. The Insurance Information Institute is predicting an average increase of about 40% this year for Florida homeowners. This is despite the fact that Florida lawmakers approved sweeping reforms in a special legislative session last month.
“The situation has gotten so bad in Florida and the market has been in turmoil for so many years, it can’t just change overnight with the flick of a switch,” said Mark Friedlander, a spokesperson for the Institute in a recent NBC 6 Miami article. “It’s going to take time.”
The January 2023 Property Insurance Stability Report released by Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation revealed that the cost of homeowners insurance in Monroe, Broward and Miami-Dade counties is already the highest in the state. Unfortunately, many homeowners in these areas are going to see significant premium increases.
In the recent NBC 6 article, a Broward homeowners shared that his premium jumped by over $5,000 when his policy renewed in December 2022. In the article, he claimed that his existing policy was $4,951 a year and when renewal time came, his premium jumped to $10,136 which is more than double what he was previously paying.
Friedlander said these types of premium increases are not uncommon in the NBC 6 article. “When an insurance company files a rate change with the Florida insurance regulator, it’s for an average statewide rate increase,” Friedlander said in the NBC 6 article. “But that’s just a starting point … areas that have higher risk are going to pay well above the average and areas in the state that have lower risk are going to pay well below the average.”
According to Friedlander, the newly passed laws will hopefully make sure that insurance companies stay in business or don’t pull out of the state altogether. “That’s probably number one because there are still many Florida insurers that are in a precarious financial position,” he said in the NBC 6 article. There are currently 19 insurance companies on the state’s watch list. Most of them are experiencing issues due to past litigation expenses.
“It is very concerning that we could see high volumes of new litigation relating specifically to Hurricanes Ian and Nicole that could drive these companies into further trouble,” he added in the NBC 6 article.