Florida homeowners saw their insurance premiums climb at roughly twice the national pace between 2021 and 2025, according to a new report, with experts divided over the cause.
The report, from the national nonprofit Coalition for an Insurable Future, found that homeowners’ insurance costs rose an average of 38 percent across the United States during that period. In Florida, premiums increased 75 percent. The state also carried the highest insurance costs relative to income of any state in the country in 2024, consuming an average of 4.4 percent of household income.
The report attributes much of the national trend to post-pandemic inflation, labor shortages, and higher construction costs — all of which drive up what insurers pay on claims. Looking further ahead, it warns that losses tied to extreme weather events will keep pressure on premiums, and projects continued steep increases.
But industry analysts point to a different primary culprit in Florida specifically: litigation. Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute said that for years, a high volume of lawsuits — many of which he described as not legitimate — drove up costs for insurers operating in the state. He noted that when claims were denied or paid at levels below what policyholders expected, insurers faced the risk of being sued and having to cover the other side’s legal fees.
Florida lawmakers responded with a pair of reforms between 2022 and 2023 that made it substantially harder and more costly for policyholders to sue their insurers. Since those changes took effect, Friedlander said litigation filings dropped 23 percent from 2023 to 2024, then fell another 25 percent in the first half of last year. Twenty new private insurers have since been approved to enter the state, and insurance regulators report that more than $850 million in new capital has entered the Florida market.
Despite those signs of stabilization, the report’s authors cautioned that prices remain too high. Carlos Curbelo, a former Republican congressman and member of the coalition that produced the report, said rising costs driven by weather-related damage are forcing policymakers to consider offsetting measures such as property tax relief — though he warned that approach has its limits.
Some analysts also point to the high cost of reinsurance — coverage that insurers buy to protect themselves from catastrophic losses — as a persistent drag on Florida premiums. Reinsurance accounts for roughly 40 cents of every premium dollar collected in the state, according to Friedlander. Former state Sen. Jeff Brandes argued the state could reduce that burden by restructuring the way Florida’s Hurricane Catastrophe Fund operates, which he estimated could yield 5 to 7 percent in savings for policyholders statewide.
Florida has experienced six hurricane landfalls since 2022, including Hurricane Ian, which generated an estimated $60 billion in insured losses and ranked among the largest insurance loss events in U.S. history.
Follow the St. Pete-Clearwater Sun on Facebook, Google, & X
St. Pete-Clearwater Sun: local St. Pete-Clearwater news at PIE-Sun.com
Leave a Reply