Florida’s home insurance rates unlikely to drop soon

Do not expect your home insurance rates to fall anytime soon, despite lawmakers’ efforts nearly a year ago to fix the state’s insurance crisis.

That’s the consensus of those in the industry and some state leaders who met in Tallahassee Tuesday to get an update on whether there has been improvement.

The news for homeowners is grim. A new report from National Insurance Analyst Karen Clark simply said premiums are not likely to go down.

A theme reiterated in Tallahassee as thousands of policyholders are booted from Citizens and face significantly higher costs for home insurance.

“There are some early positive indicators that the market is starting to stabilize and beginning to regain its health,” said Republican State Senator Jim Boyd, who chairs the Banking and Insurance Committee.

However, Senator Boyd quickly learned that news doesn’t mean homeowners will see an immediate change in their premiums.

Florida Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said it is going to take time for positive indicators to reach the consumer.

He admitted that despite Republican lawmakers’ efforts last year to enact new insurance regulations, consumers shouldn’t expect immediate results.

“When this was being passed, they indicated it would take a couple of years before we’d see impacts,” Yaworsky told reporters after the meeting.

The newly released report from Clark is even more direct. She stated homeowners should not expect decreases in their homeowners’ premiums.

Her predictions are used globally by investors. Clark’s report blames higher premiums on inflation, weather, climate, everyday weather, and excessive litigation, something the state is trying to eliminate.

Clark said had legislators not taken steps to address the insurance problem, she believes premiums would definitely be higher.

When Clark was asked what she thought was needed to bring down insurance costs for consumers, she offered little hope that much could be done.

“As I said, in the light of construction costs going up and the risk going up, you really cannot take down the true cost,” Clark concluded.

This means lawmakers will likely continue to feel the heat as costs rise and people are left with fewer options.

Republican Senator Debbie Mayfield said the majority of calls her senate office receives overwhelmingly deal with home insurance.

Key Senator Jim Boyd said Tuesday he doesn’t expect lawmakers to make major property insurance changes in the 2024 legislative session.