New data from Bankrate.com reveals that Florida homeowners are now paying some of the highest home insurance premiums in the country, second only to tornado-prone Nebraska. On average, Floridians shell out about $5,400 annually for home insurance.
In comparison, homeowners in nearby Georgia pay roughly $2,000 a year. Even in disaster-prone California, average premiums are significantly lower, around $1,400.
Jovan Millet, who moved to Fort Myers from Salt Lake City in 2022, has experienced the burden of rising insurance costs firsthand.
“I actually bought my house right before Hurricane Ian,” Millet said. “Then it got decimated. It took me over two years to collect money from the insurance company to do anything.”
Since then, his premiums have skyrocketed.
“It used to be affordable. Now it’s $4,800 a year,” he said, which is just shy of the statewide average for a $300,000 home.
Doug Nellans, an agent with The Insurancenter in Fort Myers, said Hurricane Ian was a major turning point.
“Unfortunately, rates here in Florida are at eye-watering levels. Many homeowners are increasingly anxious for some kind of relief,” Nellans said.
According to Nellans, roughly 30 variables affect insurance rates. Two of the most significant variables are a home’s location and its age.
“Without a doubt, the age of the home is one of the most important factors,” he noted. “And the closer a property is to water, the higher the premium.”
In Cape Coral, which boasts 400 miles of waterways, that means significantly higher costs. Compounding the issue, many homes are underinsured, and insurers often require higher coverage limits to ensure adequate protection.
Nellans warns that rates are unlikely to drop significantly anytime soon.
“Reconstruction and repair costs are still rising, so insurers need to increase coverage limits to keep pace,” he explained.
Meanwhile, in California, strict regulations on rate increases have kept premiums lower, even though some major insurers are pulling out of high-risk areas. As a result, many Californians are turning to state-run insurance programs similar to Florida’s Citizens Property Insurance, which recently announced modest rate decreases.
“We are starting to see some moderate rate reductions,” Nellans said. “But Citizens continues its efforts to shift policyholders into the private market.”
That shift leaves homeowners like Millet caught in a financial bind.
“I can barely afford what I have now,” he said.