In a surprise announcement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said home and auto insurance rates for some people would drop this year.
The governor said the state's largest home insurer Citizens Insurance was dropping its rates, but will it impact thousands of homeowners along the Gulf Coast?
Gulf Coast News has learned that unfortunately, those who have Citizens insurance here on the Gulf Coast will not see rates decrease. That's only for East Coast homeowners.
However, most drivers will see auto rates drop as Geico, Progressive and State Farm have announced rate decreases in the Sunshine State.
Geico announced a 10.5% decrease, followed by Progressive with an 8% rate cut and State Farm announced a 6% reduction.
Doug Nellans, with The Insurancenter of Fort Myers, said his agency is seeing the rate reductions impact customers.
“Average auto insurance rates for our clients are about $1,500 every year. So, 6% of that is a decent amount that does make a difference,” Nellans said.
Governor DeSantis announced this week that the state's largest home insurance Citizens is cutting rates, but Nellans and other industry experts point out the company will not be cutting rates in Southwest Florida; in fact, the rates will increase for customers there.
“These rate decreases are targeted on the East Coast,” Nellans stressed.
Gulf Coast homeowners will likely see about a 7% increase. Why? There have been more hurricanes lately, while the East Coast has had fewer big storms.
“But they have not had any direct landfalls from hurricanes in many years. So that's why rates are starting to moderate more in those counties compared to southwest Florida,” said Mark Friedlander, from the Insurance Information Institute.
Friedlander also credits recent state laws that make it harder to sue insurance companies.
“When those lawsuit expenses are reduced, they pass that along to consumers in terms of better rates,” he said.
Friedlander insists home and auto rates are a positive trend in the market.
It's expected more auto insurance will follow suit by dropping their rates as well.