Hurricane Helene hits Florida homeowners already facing soaring insurance costs

As Hurricane Helene barreled through Florida, the storm’s winds and flooding left a trail of damaged homes in its wake, causing up to an estimated $6 billion in private insurance losses, according to global reinsurance broker Gallagher Re.

As homeowners assess the damage, the storm is again drawing attention to wobbly Florida’s property insurance market. Soaring premiums have squeezed homeowners, who shouldered a 45% increase in insurance rates from 2017 to 2022, according to a recent report from the Florida Policy Project.

The average annual premium for a Florida homeowner is $5,500 — about 140% higher than the average U.S. homeowner’s insurance premium of $2,285, according to Bankrate. The spike in costs sometimes leads people to forego insurance altogether, with some Florida residents telling CBS Miami that they’ve been socked with rates reaching $20,000 per year. 

With extreme weather becoming more frequent and destructive due to climate change, homeowners in parts of the U.S. facing mounting risks are likely to see significantly higher insurance costs in the years ahead, according to a June paper from experts at the University of Wisconsin and University of Pennsylvania. 

“Property insurance serves as the front line of defense against climate risk for homeowners and real estate investors,” the researchers noted. “By 2053, we estimate that climate-exposed homeowners will be paying $700 higher annual premiums due to increasing wildfire and hurricane risk.”

Separate research from Harvard University, Columbia University and the Federal Reserve found that Florida ranks among the top U.S. states for projected future economic losses linked to climate change.  

But insurance industry losses in Florida are affecting property coverage in the present, as well. Traditional insurers have pulled back from offering home policies in the state, especially in its more disaster-prone regions, with the insurer-of-last resort, Citizens Property Insurance Corp., and newer insurers picking up the slack. 

At the same time, those insurers are facing higher rates from reinsurance companies, which are financial businesses that offer insurance for insurers. Because insurance companies can get financially flattened by an extreme storm or other catastrophic event, they often turn to reinsurance companies to help mitigate the risk.

“Florida, much more than any other state in the country, is exposed to the global reinsurance market,” Jeff Brandes, founder and president of the Florida Policy Project, told CBS MoneyWatch. 

Hurricanes highlight why reinsurers “are very cautious about lowering prices, which definitely impacts Floridians,” Brandes added, while noting that initial damage assessments suggest Helene’s impact on Florida properties appears to be less severe than initially feared.

“If this had shifted a few degrees east and hit Tampa Bay, the damages would be 20 times greater,” he said. 

In the meantime, recent reforms to Florida’s insurance market may provide some relief to cost-burdened homeowners. Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a sweeping property insurance bill at the end of 2022 that aims to deter frivolous lawsuits and limit insurer costs.  

Although that could help stave off rate increases in the short term, over the longer term Florida homeowners and insurers might be powerless as the planet continues to warm. 

“As losses from climate change worsen, the financial stability risks of insurers is likely to become even more pronounced,” noted the researchers from Harvard, Columbia and the Fed. “We are likely to see policymakers face difficult tradeoffs in maintaining affordability, availability and reliability of insurance markets.”