I was surprised and slightly suspicious to see a headline last week that Florida Governor DeSantis had announced a victory in stabilizing the ascending rocketship of homeowner’s insurance premiums in our state. It didn’t take much digging to uncover the rest of the story.
First the good news: For about 20% of policyholders with state-run Citizen’s Insurance, mainly in the southeast corner of the state, their renewal premiums will be slightly less than last year (5.6% average reduction). This is after multiple years with double-digit average increases; 10% in 2022, 10.7% in 2023 and 12.3% in 2024. It’s welcome news for that 20% of Citizen’s policyholders. For the remaining 80% of policyholders, their renewal notices will look like more of the same old, same old.
For the most common types of homeowner policies for a primary residence the statewide average increase is estimated at 6.6% and for all property types up 8.6%. For second homes and investment properties and all non-primary residence accounts, the average statewide increase will be 17%.
Note that Citizen’s does not provide flood coverage nor is flood damage covered by a homeowner’s policy from Citizen’s or any other insurance company as many property owners on the west coast of Florida found out last year during the two storm surge events. Flood insurance must be purchased in a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program. Another unwelcome discovery for many homeowners who did have federal flood insurance were the coverage limits. No matter the value of one’s home the maximum coverage available under the federal flood program is $250,000 for the structure and $100,000 for the contents. While welcome, a $350,000 check was little consolation for owners of multi-million dollar homes that were destroyed.
I’d be interested in hearing from readers about their own insurance increases. I have heard from some homeowners whose increases the last few years with providers other than Citizens far exceeded the already high average increases I noted above.
After a particularly frigid January, we woke up one morning last week to find that summer had arrived overnight. Straight from snow suits one day to shorts and flip flops the next. Hey, I’m not complaining, at least not about that. I will however repeat my annual whine about the seasonal slow play at the Cocoa Beach Country Club. If one is fortunate enough to actually be able to secure a tee time, it would be prudent to let the spouse know to expect an extended absence rather than to finally drag in the door five hours after teeing off. We expect slow play during snowbird season and prepare for it mentally but the reality is no less a bummer for that prep. We will survive. First world problems and all.
“Among men, hyperbole and character assassination mark the parameters of friendship.” _Doc Ford
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