Homeowners insurance in Florida

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Homeowners insurance in Florida

Karla Simmons
Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes

I keep hearing that homeowners insurance is high in Florida because of hurricanes, which makes sense. I am assuming it is not high state-wide, but in the areas that have history of hurricane damage to homes. Is this true? Would somewhere inland such as Orlando or Gainesville have less expensive insurance? And can someone quantify what high insurance cost is? An example possibly? Such as a $300,000 home has annual or monthly premium of $X amount.

Thank you!

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Eric Starks
Investor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2021 · 73 posts · 42 votes
5y

I live in Orlando and my primary home is worth a little over $300K.  I switched from Securities First this year.  They were jacking up my insurance a rediculous amount each year.  I switched from them to State Farm and I now pay $1,265 which is less than half what I was paying for Securities First.  Now I get this rate by getting as many discounts as possible like, bundling home and auto, getting a wind mitigation inspection, going paperless, etc.  I should point out I switched from State Farm to Securities First years ago because State Farm kept raising my rates.  I guess in Florida, you just have to shop around every 5+ years to see who is offering the best rate. 

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  • Shawn McCormickPro Member
    Realtor · Central Florida-Orlando · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 894 votes
    5y

    Hi @Karla Simmons  I can't speak for the entire state as each area has its own issues including Hurricanes, being in flood zone or coastal due to the damages of salt water, erosion etc. I'm in Orlando and Insurance companies are fighting back against fraud..especially in the roofing industry.

    Many carriers have pulled out of Florida all together and the ones left are taking advantage. Rates have doubled in many cases from about $100 per month on average to around 200-300 depending on those factors I mentioned. If the roof has less than 5 years life expectancy, you'll be lucky to even get coverage. If they do cover you, they bind it on a usable life payout, rather than replacement value.

    I don't know how this fares with other areas, but with fires out West, hurricanes affecting much of the South (and now the North East as well !!), historic flooding almost everywhere, I don't see this getting any better. If you own here, I can recommend a couple of companies if you like.

    1Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Shawn McCormick

    Thank you for this information. I have a friend who bought a home in St. Augustine about 3 years ago and she told me (at the time) that her insurance was very affordable. Is this doubling of rates something that is occurred within last few years? Thanks again.

    0Reply
  • Shawn McCormickPro Member
    Realtor · Central Florida-Orlando · Member since 2014 · 1k+ posts · 894 votes
    5y

    @Karla Simmons Yes, this is pretty new. Insurance has been pretty predictable in the last decade or so until they started fighting back. I would say 2-3 years is right on target when rates started going crazy.

    1Reply
  • Nicole Marshall
    Indian Harbour Beach, FL · Member since 2018 · 92 posts · 99 votes
    5y

    I am in the Melbourne area (about an hour SE of Orlando), on one of the barrier islands. My HOI was $2400 yearly when I bought the house in 2016 and increased ~$100/year. Until last year. My rate went to $4500/year. After asking around... mostly everyone had their insurance hiked more than $1000, and those were the lucky ones. So many insurance companies have dropped coverage across the state and people are struggling to find new insurance. As @Shawn McCormick mentioned, the insurance companies are raising prices primarily to cover litigation costs (homeowners fighting the insurance companies over lack of or insufficient payment on claims), but I'm sure hurricanes are a contributing factor (although the hurricane deductible is already high).

    0Reply
  • John Teachout
    Rental Property Investor · Concord, GA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
    5y

    Florida insurance is different from most other places. There are inspections (4 point) that I had never heard of even though I live in the bordering state of Georgia. Deductibles are high, premiums are high and the state seems to be chopped up into portions so one company can underwrite in one area but not another.

    There's deductions (think of them as add ons) for all sorts of construction related issues. ie, rafter ties and strapping, storm proof windows and doors and so forth.

    There's lots of building codes that are specific to Florida which increases costs of many things such as HVAC (outdoor units need to be strapped down to concrete slabs, etc)

    Essentially, if you want property in Florida, go ahead but expect to bend over for the insurance companies. It's a cost of doing business in the state.

    0Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Shawn McCormick

    Thank you!

    0Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Nicole Marshall

    Wow, that’s expensive! I had no idea. Thanks for your input!

    0Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @John Teachout

    Thanks for the info! Very interesting.

    0Reply
  • Account Closed
    New York City / Space Coast FL · Member since 2021 · 16 posts · 15 votes
    5y

    If you're on a barrier island you're at the mercy of the insurance companies. So I'm not surprised at the 4.5k amount there. I own single-family property in the Melbourne area, except not on a barrier island. 2k is what I've seen as typical. Increase that as your house gets older and your roof gets older, or you go to wood frame, decrease that for brand new concrete block construction and/or a new roof. Don't know about Orlando but I would naturally expect some kind of discount there as it isn't quite as susceptible to tropical storms as the coastal areas.

    1Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Siddhartha Gandhi

    Thank you!

    0Reply
  • Eric Starks
    Investor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2021 · 73 posts · 42 votes
    5y

    I live in Orlando and my primary home is worth a little over $300K.  I switched from Securities First this year.  They were jacking up my insurance a rediculous amount each year.  I switched from them to State Farm and I now pay $1,265 which is less than half what I was paying for Securities First.  Now I get this rate by getting as many discounts as possible like, bundling home and auto, getting a wind mitigation inspection, going paperless, etc.  I should point out I switched from State Farm to Securities First years ago because State Farm kept raising my rates.  I guess in Florida, you just have to shop around every 5+ years to see who is offering the best rate. 

    5Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Eric Starks

    $1265 sounds reasonable. Yes, it’s good to

    shop around.

    0Reply
  • Jessica Pearl
    Investor · FL · Member since 2021 · 15 posts · 6 votes
    5y

    Southeast Florida is very difficult now for property insurance, especially near the coast. As mentioned above, it is due to huge amounts of fraud for roof replacements. It is very expensive and choices are limited- in our case until we turned to USAA the lowest quote we got from our agent was $6.5k for a 1800sqft house (we converted the rental property into our primary residence). This was last summer. It has definitely been a factor in deciding which market to buy an investment property in. 

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  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Jessica Pearl

    Wow, that’s very expensive. I hope those committing the fraud are getting caught and punished!

    0Reply
  • Jeff T.
    Rental Property Investor · Culver City, CA · Member since 2014 · 222 posts · 79 votes
    5y

    @Eric Starks

    Wait , State Farm is doing new policies again?

    They stopped writing new policies years ago.

    I’ll have to check that out.

    Insurance costs seem to be lower for newer builds that are up to current codes.

    Also my property manager was telling me there was a lot of reroofing done charged to insurance companies for hurricane damage that wasn’t .

    Who knows how much is true.

    But I was dropped in the *middle* of my policy and it almost doubled . I didnt think they could do that but I guess so.

    Insurance is super expensive but like i said it helps to have a newer build. Luckily rents have gone up to cover it but it’s painful.

    0Reply
  • Jason Smith
    Member since 2021 · 109 posts · 130 votes
    5y

    "Florida lawyers filed more than 76% of the homeowners’ suits against insurance companies in the entire U.S" It is due to roofing fraud claims. The roofing companies were teaming up with shady personal injury attorneys. They flyer and ring our doorbells 20 times a year and tell us we may have "hail" damage. You would think local news could uncover this story, but guess who their #1 and #2 advertisers are?

    1Reply
  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Jason Smith

    Wow! That’s terrible.

    0Reply
  • Daniel SmythPro Member
    Rental Property Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2019 · 471 posts · 342 votes
    5y

    @Karla Simmons

    I lived in South Florida for 14 years.

    The positives about my house regarding insurance, is that I was not in a flood zone, and I was West of I95, which is one line of protection for severe hurricane damage.

    The hurricane shutters installed on your house matter. The age of your house matters unless certain code changes were made.

    Look into Hurricane Andrew, and the debacle that was. Lots have changed since then, and the changes keep coming.

    Hurricanes are just a part of life when you live in coastal Florida. The farther inland is usually better but Wilma showed us that even central Florida is not immune from some hurricanes.

    Your investment in Florida should include a full house natural or bottled gas generator. Your gasoline generator only works when you can find gasoline. Unless you work for law enforcement or the like, gas runs out on day#3.

    This can sound bad. It's not as bad ,in my opinion, as living in the tornado belts of Oklahoma, where destruction can come in an instant. The nice thing about hurricanes, is that you have a week or more to figure out your plans before the fun begins!

    [email protected]
    1Reply
  • Shawn K HicksBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Gainesville, FL · Member since 2019 · 128 posts · 107 votes
    5y

    @Jeff T. Specific to State Farm Insurance in the Gainesville area: My brother in law runs one of the local franchises. If a residential home ranges from new construction to 10 years old, they in the last year had a reduction in their rates either 20 or 25% which makes them a competitive option from a policy cost perspective. Their customer service is top notch, but on older homes, they are not typically competitive on price. Even still, they seem to have a loyal following that will even pay their higher premium costs on older homes.

    [email protected]352-871-5770
    Shawn Hicks Realtor530 Reviews
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  • Eric Starks
    Investor · Orlando, FL · Member since 2021 · 73 posts · 42 votes
    5y

    @Jeff T. yes,  State Farm is doing policies in Florda again.  I was surprised at the rate I was able to get as well.  Now that desn't mean that they won't start jacking up the rate again after a couple of years, but if they do, I'll just drop them and move to someone else.  My home was built in 1999 by the way and I got the policy earlier this year. 

    0Reply
  • Shawn K HicksBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Gainesville, FL · Member since 2019 · 128 posts · 107 votes
    5y

    @Karla Simmons Specifically in Gainesville, my impression is the cost of policies are still more affordable in general than Real Estate closer to coastal areas. You can get a new construction home ranging anywhere from 1,500 to 2,500 heated and cooled square footage for 700 to 1k annually with pretty good coverages. For a home over 10 years old, & some additional variable factors, it is within the norm to be more in the 1,200 to 1,500 a year range.

    From an investor perspective, in the last couple of years, many insurance carriers have gotten tougher on 3 tab shingle roofs. Though they can last 15 to 22 years, most carriers now will only allow 10 to 15 years old on 3 tab to underwrite a policy. Also, a hot water heater can be working perfectly fine, but if it's over 15 years old, that is also now an issue for many carriers.

    I also frequently run into situations where even if in the electrical panels there is cloth wiring over copper, the underwriters are sometimes still paranoid and assume it's cloth over aluminum. One transaction in particular we had to have an electrician strip back the cloth to prove there was copper, then cover in the more traditional synthetic covering.

    [email protected]352-871-5770
    Shawn Hicks Realtor530 Reviews
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  • Karla Simmons
    OP
    Vacaville, CA · Member since 2019 · 218 posts · 140 votes
    5y

    @Shawn K Hicks

    Thanks for all the good info!

    1Reply
  • Shawn K HicksBusiness Member
    Real Estate Agent · Gainesville, FL · Member since 2019 · 128 posts · 107 votes
    5y

    @Karla Simmons You bet! Glad to help.

    [email protected]352-871-5770
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  • Jason Smith
    Member since 2021 · 109 posts · 130 votes
    5y

    From my experience State Farm was jacking the rates up, dropping Coastal areas, or not renewing a while ago. It led to all these Security First, UPC, and all these alphabet named companies to come in. These smaller places doing $500 deductibles at reasonable rates. I think turned out to be a mistake. Roofer comes to everyone's door says I will get you a free roof (or our lawyer will sue the insurance co. and drag it out so long they give in as it is cheaper) and for you putting this sign on your lawn saying "another roof covered under insurance see if you qualify call RoofScammers Co" we will pay you $500 - this number happens to be the same as your deductible - which we are not legally allowed to pay. Now State Farm is back in non-coastal areas with good rates. However Farmers may be better. State Farm and Farmers are now charging what these smaller companies charged 2 years ago, but the rates of these smaller places have doubled or more in the last 2 years. However, the state farm and farmers deductibles are now 2% to get these good rates (pretty much shuts down the roof scam).

    0Reply
  • Victor Delcea
    Contractor · Cocoa, FL · Member since 2022 · 3 posts · 0 votes
    4y

    Its actually rich people committing most of the fraud on the coast. I live in Melbourne and about 6 to 7 years ago some hurricane grazed through a bit and I as a junior contractor at the time, got hired with my bosses crew to work on insurance claims on Tortoise island. Thats the only gated community thats also its own island situation here in the Brevard that I know about. We got paid ridiculous sums to pull up to culdesacs for weeks to rebuild bigger and better decks for peoples who's were "damaged". Almost every house in there was getting something done to their house from a insurance claim. Most of it was excessive and a quarter of it completely pointless.

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