Homeowners’ insurance costs fell 0.7% between the third and fourth quarters of 2024. This is the result of a drop in fees that Florida insurance officials have been touted for the past few months as a sign that the market is back in health.
The decline in costs for multi-peril insurance for single-family homeowners (average premium of $3,668 to $3,644) is the first time that costs have been reduced since the launch of its quarterly housing market share report in mid-2022.
The average premium cost is revealed by dividing the total premium by the number of policyholders reported by the company.
Stacey Julianti, chief legal officer at Florida Peninsula Insurance, said the average homeowner premium fell 3.9%, but the results reflect recent reforms that Florida Legislature enacted to reduce costs resulting from runaway lawsuits.
“As experts have been forecasting the last few years, the strong actions of the Florida Legislature and the governor, which are the strong actions of reducing frivolous litigation, are beginning to show strong cuts in personal home insurance fees,” Julianti said. “This consumer trend continues unless Congress makes the big mistake of turning it back in the current session.”
Congress is considering several proposals that require insurers to reinstate legal fee payments to policyholders that win lawsuits. Since the reforms in 2022, policyholders have mostly had to pay legal fees from their pockets or as a percentage of the amount awarded by the court.
The plaintiff’s lawyers allege that reforms will insist on policyholders whose payments are unfairly taken away by the policyholders asserting an important tool to challenge or argue for refusal.
Insurance officials oppose the proposal, stating that the reforms have successfully stabilized costs.
Since January 2024, 17 companies have applied for a rate reduction, while 34 have not requested a change or increased, Insurance Secretary Michael Yaworski recently said.
The most recent report shows that the average price of condo unit coverage fell 1.7% for the first time in the report’s history, down from $1,737 to $1,707.
The average premium paid by the Condominium Association in the fourth quarter fell 2.5% for the second straight time, following a 3.0% decline between the second and third quarters. Still, these declines followed a cumulative increase of 103% between the second quarters of 2022 and 2024.
The 0.7% decrease in what homeowners paid for multi-peril detached homeowners’ compensation follows a 3.1% increase in the second and third quarters of 2024. The 3.1% increase then followed 1.3% identical hikes between the first and second quarters and the second quarters, with these increases significantly lower than the previous hikes from 2.6% to the 2022 and 2023 hikes.
It is not yet known whether the decline marks the beginning of the trend.
The most sharp declines have been reported actively and aggressively in policy overprotections from state-owned citizen property insurance companies, including Manatee Insurance, American Honesty, Monarch National, Florida Peninsula and Slide Insurance.
State law requires private market insurers who will take citizen customers along the way in policy terms to maintain the remaining citizen fees of these conditions. Civic officials have repeatedly estimated that the company will charge about 30% less than private market companies.
Newcomer Manatee Insurance showed an average premium decline of 11.7% as it scooped citizens’ policies. The average cost of manatees fell from $3,859 to $3,407 at the end of the third quarter with a policy of 12,566 at the end of the third quarter and at the end of the fourth quarter with a policy of 56,663.
Also, reducing costs gives policyholders the opportunity to breathe in, but state consumers are still paying the highest housing insurance costs in the country.
Since the first market share report was issued in the second quarter of 2022, average premiums rose 30.2% following reforms enacted that year, which predicted insurance authorities would eventually stabilize or even decline.
Ron Burtibise covers South Florida Sun Sentinel’s business and consumer issues. He can be contacted by telephone at 954-356-4071 or by email at rhurtibise@sunsentinel.com.
Original issue: March 20, 2025, 3:52pm EDT
