Published: May 24, 2024, 11:51 AM
Updated: May 24, 2024, 6:22 PM
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – How much are Floridians paying on average for property insurance? It really depends on who you pose the question to.
In the latest market update released last week by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, state officials said “Rates are beginning to stabilize” and the average homeowners premium in the “admitted market” in Florida is approximately $3,600, but other insurance data experts report higher premiums.
Insurance.com pegs the average policy cost at $4,419 and the Insurance Information Institute has cited policy costs at approximately $6,000 in the state. Bankrate.com has it at a still higher $6,366.
News4JAX asked Mark Friedlander — who has been following Florida’s property insurance crisis closely and has vast industry experience — why there are so many discrepancies when calculating the average premium price.
″Every organization that cites average premiums has different criteria. It’s not apples to apples, it’s not to say anybody is right or anybody’s wrong. It’s just looking at different data sets,” he said.
Friedlander said he’s confident his agency’s $6,000 annual estimate is accurate because their analysts looked at data across all 67 Florida counties. He also said the Insurance Information Institute data was fact-checked by Wall Street analysts, who concluded it was correct.
News4JAX also asked Friedlander about the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation stating the average premium in the “admitted” market is $3600. He points out the word “admitted” means the state’s average doesn’t include “surplus line carriers,” which insure higher risk and coastal properties.
″So we’re including admitted and not admitted,” he said. “If you go all the fancy ZIP codes here in Northeast Florida, Ponte Vedra, right, all those beautiful homes on the ocean. Most likely they’re getting insured through the nonadmitted or surplus lines markets go up and down the coast. A lot of South Florida, the other coast, the Gulf Coast, those higher and coastal properties, most likely are all being insured by the global market or the surplus size market.”
News4JAX asked readers, how much they are paying for property insurance, and we got a lot of eye-opening answers which could give you some perspective into if you are paying too much for the size of your house and your coverage.
“4020.00 yearly on a house worth 150k built in 1965, it went from 1650 to 2475 to 3600 to 4020 in the last 4 years with NO claims. Where does this add up??,” viewer Tammy wrote.
“1800 sq ft house/new roof 2017/brick in 32226 about a mile inland from Samples Creek/across Nassau Sound $3774 for 2024, increase of $636 from last year,” R Powell said.
“For 2018-2019 our policy was $1420.00. Up to $3099.00 in 21/22, $4627.20 in 22/23, last year 23/24 it is a whopping 7459.88. no flood zone, riverside, new roof,” Jessica said.
So, we want to know, what are you paying annually for property insurance?
Tell us by filling out the form below and we may use your answers in our reporting.