Florida Homeowner Insurance : Rapidly Rising Rates

We live in the state with rapidly increasing rates – partly due to the hurricanes and a decision made by the state for every homeowner to “share the tab” for certain previous losses and to encourage insurance companies to stay in the state.

We’ve recently received our homeowner insurance quote for the coming year, a rate increase of 40%.  Of course, we contacted our agent to discuss the situation.  Now, we did adjust our insurance amount for replacement value of the home (minus the cost of the land) so that accounted for a small amount of the increase.  We are going to be shopping around for a better rate, but I don’t hold much confidence that we are going to find anything better. 

The topic of Florida homeowner insurance is hot right now, and many citizens are demanding some solutions.  A quick overview of some recent news articles on this topic show the extent of the problem:

The Bradenten Herald recently featured “Increase coverage, cut the cost of home insurance“, which outlines some ways to cut costs on insurance.  Basically, insuring your home for the replacement value of the house and not the mortage amount (which includes the valuation for the land). 

The Palm Beach Post has an article about an 86-year-old widow who has no mortage on her home and canceled her homeowners insurance because it was too costly.  

And the insurance crisis is hitting the condo owners as well, with some owners thinking of selling and getting out of the state due to the rising rates.

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