| Florida's Insurance Rate Changes Expected to Be Among the Nation's Lowest in 2025 |
| There's good news in Florida. For years, homeowners across the country have faced significantly increasing homeowners’ insurance premiums, making affordability a major issue in the U.S., and Florida has been no exception. While storms, rising property values, and inflation have certainly played a role, the real culprit was something far less obvious to those of us paying the premiums: a legal system that had been heavily exploited, leading to an overwhelming number of frivolous lawsuits artificially driving up costs for homeowners. To put this issue into perspective, in 2021, Florida accounted for just 6.9% of all property insurance claims in the U.S., yet it made up over a staggering 76% of all property insurance lawsuits in the entire country. That kind of legal environment isn’t just a headache for insurance companies, it drives up costs for everyone. The only winners are the lawyers on the billboards. Insurers, facing unpredictable legal expenses, have to pass that “cost of doing business” onto homeowners, leading to artificially higher insurance premiums. To highlight the importance of addressing Florida’s lawsuit abuse crisis for long-term economic prosperity and competitiveness, the Florida Chamber Foundation’s Florida 2030 Blueprint established a goal to unite Florida's business community in targeted efforts to improve Florida’s legal climate to top 12 in the U.S. by 2030 (up from bottom-five on the most recent ranking). Here’s the good news: things are starting to turn around. Thanks to key Florida Chamber-backed legislative reforms in 2022 and 2023 that Governor DeSantis and legislative leaders made a priority, Florida is seeing a shift in the market that’s bringing in new insurers and leading to rate reductions, rate freezes and slower premium increases for others. And compared to what’s happening in the rest of the country, Florida’s progress is even more impressive. What Changed? The Impact of Florida’s Legal Reforms Recognizing the urgency of the problem, the Florida business community united behind an effort to advocate for change. As a result, Florida lawmakers passed Senate Bill 2-A (SB 2-A) in December 2022 and House Bill 837 (HB 837) in March 2023. These laws were designed to tackle the core issues driving up insurance costs. Key Findings:
A Different Story Across the Country While Florida is finally seeing some stability, other states are heading in the opposite direction. Across the U.S., home insurance premiums have jumped by double digits for the second year in a row, largely due to rising natural disaster risks, lawsuit abuse, and inflation. In 2024, Nebraska saw the largest calculated increase in premiums at 22.7%, with five other states also seeing an increase of more than 20%: Montana, Iowa, Minnesota, Utah, and Washington—over the one-year period. |
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Looking back further, other states like Louisiana, California, and Texas have been experiencing severe insurance crises since 2019, with major carriers pulling out of high-risk areas and homeowners struggling to find affordable coverage.
What’s Next? While Florida’s property insurance rates aren’t dropping across the board just yet, they are stabilizing, which is a major win for homeowners. The biggest takeaway is that the reforms are working. By addressing the legal system issues that were driving up costs, Florida has created an environment where insurers want to do business. As more insurers enter the market and competition increases, we can expect the pressure on rates to ease even further. While homeowners in other states brace for even steeper hikes, Florida is proving that bold reform can make a real difference. So, if you’ve been dreading your next insurance renewal, there’s finally some good news—you might not see much of a rate hike, if at all. And for many Floridians, that’s a welcome change. . |
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