ORLANDO, Fla. — It is good news for Central Florida homeowners as we wrap up 2025 — some companies are planning to lower home insurance premiums for 2026.
Even Florida’s insurer of last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, plans to lower rates for the first time since 2015.
Depending on where they live, many Central Florida homeowners could save money as they pay their home insurance bill for 2026.
Florida homeowners with a mortgage on their property are usually required to carry home insurance. Rising home insurance rates over the last few years have stretched family budgets while other costs of living climb.
John Tankersley, of Pine Street Insurance, has been selling home insurance in Florida for 28 years. He said Florida’s 2022 insurance reforms are starting to work.
“The property insurance market is the healthiest it’s been in five years,” he said.
Tankersley said he is seeing more companies filing rate decreases with state regulators, who decide if they will approve those rate requests.
“There’s a number of companies that have already filed for double-digit rate decreases,” he said.
Companies proposing premium decreases for 2026 include:
- State Farm filed for a 10% rate reduction statewide
- Florida Peninsula Insurance proposes an average reduction of 8.4%
- The Patriot Select Insurance Company plans to reduce premiums by 11.3%
State regulators approved Heritage Property and Casualty Insurance Company lowering policyholders premiums next year by 9.6% for Seminole County residents, and by 7% for Osceola County policyholders.
Heritage CEO Ernie Garateix said companies are able lower rates because they have clear storm damage data from the last three years.
“The data we’re getting from 2023 to 2024 and I think 2025 will be another year is, you’re seeing expected losses, more normality in the industry,” he said. “And that will allow us to take down those, some of those rates.”
Tankersley wants consumers to know that while some homeowners will see rates go down, others could still see rates increase.
“It’s all based on geographic locations, counties, zip codes and what the loss ratio is in each of the counties and the concentration of those carriers have in each of those counties,” he said.
Major hurricanes in recent years pushed many homeowners to Citizens Insurance, Florida’s state insurer when private companies won’t cover a home.
Now, Citizens plans to cut rates for 2026 by an average 2.6% statewide. Citizens says 60% of customers would see an average premium cut of 11.5% if the state approves those rates.
Tankersley said many Citizens customers are now getting offers from private companies.
“You don’t have to take that,” he said. “You can actually shop with other companies, and the best advice I can give is call your agent.”
Tankersley added that policyholders with private companies should consider shopping their insurance rates too, as the market outlook improves.
Citizens has sent more than 546,000 policies to private insurers this year, which officials say is helping the insurance market. More new companies are writing insurance policies in Florida, and existing companies are issuing more policies here.
Alice J. Roden started working for Trending Insurance News at the end of 2021. Alice grew up in Salt Lake City, UT. A writer with a vast insurance industry background Alice has help with several of the biggest insurance companies. Before joining Trending Insurance News, Alice briefly worked as a freelance journalist for several radio stations. She covers home, renters and other property insurance stories.