Your guide to Florida Home Owner’s Insurance

Part 1: Why Florida’s Insurance Market Became So Complicated

If you’ve purchased a home in Florida recently, you’ve probably experienced some version of this conversation:

“How old is the roof?”

“Can the home pass a 4-point inspection?”

“Who is the current insurance carrier?”

“Did the premium just double?”

For many buyers moving to Florida, the homeowners' insurance process can feel confusing, expensive, and sometimes completely disconnected from the home's actual condition. But there’s a reason Florida’s insurance market became one of the most difficult in the country.

And surprisingly, hurricanes are only part of the story.

Florida became the Lawsuit Capital of homeowners' insurance

For years, Florida represented an unusually large percentage of homeowners insurance lawsuits nationwide.

At one point, Florida accounted for the overwhelming majority of property insurance litigation in the United States despite representing a much smaller percentage of total homeowners' insurance claims overall.

A major contributor was “assignment of benefits” litigation, combined with aggressive legal advertising, roofing claims, and lawsuits over storm-damage disputes. In simple terms, insurance companies were spending enormous amounts of money defending claims in court.

The result?

Insurance carriers began losing money,  not just from hurricanes, but from litigation costs, legal fees, and claims instability. Why should that have stayed in Florida if they were getting sued and the risk of hurricanes?

Insurance Companies Started Leaving Florida

As losses mounted, several insurance companies:

• became insolvent,
• stopped writing new policies,
• or pulled out of Florida entirely.

This created a major supply-and-demand problem.

Fewer insurance companies competing in the market meant:

• higher premiums,
• stricter underwriting,
• and fewer options for homeowners.

Suddenly, buyers were hearing things like:

• “The roof is too old.”
• “We won’t insure homes with that electrical panel.”
• “The plumbing system is ineligible.”
• “The home needs a 4-point inspection first.”

Even buyers purchasing perfectly livable homes found themselves struggling to obtain affordable coverage.

Most carries left, and then Citizens stepped in?

As private carriers exited Florida, many homeowners ended up with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.

Citizens is Florida’s state-backed insurer designed to act as the “insurer of last resort.”

In other words:

If homeowners cannot obtain reasonable coverage through the private market, Citizens exists to provide coverage options so homes remain insurable.

Over time, Citizens grew dramatically because so many policies migrated away from private carriers.

Citizens Property Insurance ballooned from roughly 420,000 policies in 2019 to approximately 1.4 million policies by 2023.

After Hurricane Ian and multiple insurer insolvencies, Citizens became the largest property insurer in Florida.

At its peak, Citizens grew to roughly 1.4 million policies, raising concerns about whether Florida’s state-backed insurance system could absorb a truly catastrophic hurricane season.

The concern?

Many experts worried the system was becoming overleveraged if Florida experienced multiple catastrophic storms while Citizens carried such a massive number of policies.

Florida Started Reforming Insurance Laws

In response, Florida lawmakers passed a series of insurance reforms beginning around 2022–2023.

The reforms targeted several major areas:

• reduction of lawsuit incentives,
• limitations on attorney fee structures,
• tightening claim litigation procedures,
• and broader efforts to stabilize the insurance market.

The goal was simple:

Make Florida more attractive for insurance companies to operate in again.

Is the Market Improving?

For the first time in years, there are signs of stabilization.

Some insurance companies have:

• Approximately 15–18 new insurershave entered or re-entered Florida’s property insurance market since the legislative reforms began in 2022–2023.
• As Florida’s insurance market stabilized, some insurance companies began expanding underwriting, meaning they became more willing to insure homes and properties they previously would have declined

• For the first time in years, Florida homeowners are beginning to see signs of stabilization. Some carriers have reduced rates, others have frozen premiums, and the pace of increases has slowed considerably compared to the double-digit jumps many homeowners experienced over the last several years.

Citizens has also begun transferring policies back into the private market in an effort to reduce overall exposure.

That does not mean Florida insurance is suddenly “cheap” again.

Buyers are still heavily impacted by:

• roof age,
• flood zones,
• prior claims,
• electrical systems,
• plumbing materials,
• and overall property condition.

But compared to a few years ago, the market is beginning to show signs of improvement.

Why This Matters to Buyers and Sellers

Insurance now plays a major role in:

• affordability,
• negotiations,
• financing,
• and resale value.

A home may appear move-in ready but still create insurance challenges because of:

• an aging roof,
• outdated electrical panels,
• older plumbing,
• or lack of wind mitigation features.

That’s why buyers in Florida increasingly ask insurance questions before even making an offer.

Coming Next in the Series

In Part 2, we’ll break down:

• what a 4-point inspection actually is,
• why insurance companies require them,
• and the most common issues that create problems during underwriting.

Then we’ll cover:

• wind mitigation reports,
• insurance discounts,
• hurricane features,
• and how homeowners can potentially lower premiums in Florida.