Takeaways:

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• Citizens home insurance of last resort drops premiums 8.7%
• Home and auto insurers are reducing rates
• New insurers are launching in the Florida market

Florida’s home insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance, will lower premiums this spring, Governor Ron DeSantis announced. The governor also pointed to decreasing rates for insurance statewide.

Citizens rates will decrease by an average of 8.7%, with more than 330,000 out of the insurer’s 395,144 policyholders seeing rate decreases. More than 150,000 policyholders will get reductions of 10% or more, according to a press release from the governor’s office.

Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg

“Floridians are seeing rate reductions in both auto and homeowners insurance across the state, with additional relief coming soon,” DeSantis stated in the release. “The reductions in Citizens Insurance rates are the most significant in recent memory.  Premiums are lowering because we’ve enacted real reforms and withstood the pressure to reverse course.”

Insurance consumer advocates have said that premiums have increased 54% since 2019, and the tort reform law caused more homeowners’ claims to be closed without payment. Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation disputed these assertions, pointing to other factors such as lower reinsurance costs making lower premiums possible, and below deductible claims being counted as claims denials. 

Florida’s chief financial officer, Blaise Ingoglia, and insurance commissioner, Michael Yaworsky, credit the rate cuts to the state’s tort reform law that took effect two years ago.  

“Four years ago, our insurance market was near collapse, which is why I stood alongside our Governor to create historic lawsuit reform, cut out the waste, fraud and abuse, and strengthen our insurance market,” Ingoglia stated. “Those reforms are working, and Florida homeowners are seeing the benefits.”

Yaworsky added, “We are seeing nothing but good news across all data points for Florida’s auto and home insurance markets. These positive results are entirely related to our historic tort reforms.”

Four counties in South Florida – Broward, Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Monroe – will see the largest average reductions for Citizens policies, ranging from 11% to 14%.

According to the press release, 17 new insurers have launched in Florida, with dozens of homeowners and auto insurers filing rate decreases. In home insurance, Florida Peninsula, Security First, and Universal Property & Casualty reduced rates from 5% to 8%. In auto insurance, insurers including USAA, Florida Farm Bureau, Progressive, State Farm, AAA and Allstate have all decreased rates from 4% to 15%. Surplus lines premiums have decreased as well, with commercial business insurance costs dropping 10% and commercial windstorm and hail coverage costs decreasing 47%.