The truth about home insurance prices: Most homeowners still seeing hikes. Are you?

About those home insurance rate decreases that Florida lawmakers and insurance executives have been crowing about for nearly a year:

Data released by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation shows a majority of policyholders in the state are continuing to see costs rise for all-perils coverage of their single-family homes.

In fact, among customers of the 90 residential property insurers regulated by the state, two-thirds were insured by companies that posted average premium increases between January and May, while only a third were insured by companies that posted decreases. Companies with average cost reductions served 1.37 million homeowners while companies with increased average costs insured 2.77 million customers.____________________________________________________________________

Reforms driving rate improvements, insurance insiders say

Still, lawmakers and insurance insiders contend that the market continues to improve, thanks to Florida insurance law reforms enacted in 2022 and 2023.

The reforms reduced incentives for policyholders, contractors and attorneys to sue insurers with little risk of having to pay insurers’ attorneys fees whether or not the suits were successful.

After the reforms were enacted, insurers were no longer required to pay all legal fees of plaintiffs when they agreed to settle claims disputes for any amount over their original offers.

As recently as June 29, Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky was quoted in an office news release as touting 14 new insurers writing in Florida since the reforms were enacted and “over 120 residential filing requests for rate decreases or 0% increases so far this year.”

But the analysis shows that policyholders on average have only seen lower costs from the stabilized rates between the third and fourth quarters of 2024, when average premiums decreased by 0.8%. The data shows costs rising an average 0.3% between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

The next quarter could see an even larger increase. From March to May, average premiums increased from $3,702 to $3,721, or 0.5%, according to a comparison of figures in the monthly market share reports.https://www.sun-sentinel.com/2025/08/11/the-truth-about-home-insurance-prices-most-homeowners-still-seeing-hikes-are-you/?share=tlnthgprgnawtenrbppl