SAFETY HARBOR, Fla. — State regulators will soon weigh in on a 14% average rate hike proposed by Citizens Property Insurance, which could impact more than a million policyholders. The state’s largest and backed property insurance company says it’s necessary to correct artificially low rates and begin to depopulate the “insurer of last resort.”
As homeowners brace for another increase to their premiums, experts still say the state’s battered property insurance market is starting to show signs of healing.
“I remember I was around $1,000 a year, but now I’m well over $3,000 now,” says Al Landgraff, a homeowner in Safety Harbor, who like many in the state has seen firsthand insurance costs continue to rise.
“There’s not much you can do. You pretty much have to pay it. Again, there’s not a lot of choices,” Landgraff added.
He and his wife are making the choice to move to South Carolina with hopes of retiring soon.
“It’s a little more rural but compared to the cost of living here, it's nothing. We’d love to stay here, but if we’re going to retire it's not here,” Landgraff added.
As Citizens customers face another premium increase, leaders at the state-backed insurer say it's necessary to keep their prices from being artificially low. With over a million policies, the company is aiming to shed that number and limit the risk to all policyholders statewide.
As they aim to shed their overall policy count and limit the risk to policyholders statewide.
“We think the private rates are coming down, and as we get closer, we will be actually sound and we can stop competing. That will help market recovery, that will help bring competition to the state,” Tim Cerio, president of Citizens Property Insurance, said.
While costs may be going up again next year, industry experts say there are more promising signs in the market as a whole.
“It's going to take time, hang in there, things are going to get better and Florida is on the road to recovery on property insurance,” Jeff Brandes, a former state senator and current president of the Florida Policy Project, said.
Brandes says property insurance reform passed while he was still in the legislature back in 2022 is beginning to make an impact.
“We are seeing litigation begin to come down pretty dramatically across the state. We think that's incredibly positive. We're seeing new companies begin to form and I think come November, December, you're going to see a rush to take policies out of Citizens,” Brandes added.
Ultimately, folks like Al need choices that aren’t there right now.
“What we need is a robust competitive market for prices to fall,” Brandes says.
“I think you're going to see premiums rise a little bit or go down a little bit this year, but you'll really start to see the impacts in the next 24 months,” he added.
“Market conditions are improving, there are seven new home insurers that have been approved to write policies in Florida,” Mark Friedlander with the Insurance Information Institute told 10 Tampa Bay earlier this year. “This will give consumers an opportunity to shop their coverage and get competitive quotes, something we haven't seen in Florida in many, many years.”
The Office of Insurance regulation is expected to soon issue an order on the proposed rates.
The News Service of Florida contributed to this report.