The rising costs of Florida homeowner insurance resumed in the first quarter of 2025, with average premium costs rising after a slight soak in late 2024, showing new data released by the Florida Department of Insurance Regulation.
The average premiums paid by Florida detached home owners increased by 0.3% between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.
Condo unit owners increased their costs by 0.8% over the period, data shows, from $1,714 to $1,729.
The enactment of the 2022 reform aimed at significantly reducing legal costs for insurance companies has seen an average premium for homeowners increase by 30.7% and 28.8% for condominium unit owners.
The first quarter hike followed a cost reduction of less than 1% in the homeowner policy and less than 1.7% in the condo unit policy in the fourth quarter of 2024. This was the only quarter that costs have been reduced since the report began release in 2022.
The office released the latest data without comment, and insurance secretary Michael Yaworski did not respond to emails from the Sun Sentinel. An office spokesperson said he does not believe Yaworsky can deal with the increase before the publication of the news article.
Mark Friedlander, senior director of media relations at the Industry-Funded Insurance Information Institute, attributes it to “increased replacement costs due to the effects of inflation in construction materials and labor.”
He also noted that “the slightest increase is far below coastal states where most other hurricanes are prone to occurring, which are experiencing double-digit premium increases.”
Data showing increased costs for Florida consumers most attention has been focused on improving the state’s insurance market following an announcement of an analysis by insurance rating agencies.
In addition to achieving its first collective underwriting profit in the market for the first eight years in 2024, AM Best Report cited the emergence of 13 new private market insurers, stabilizing premiums and reinsurance costs, and sudden cuts in policies held by state national citizen property insurers.
He said improvements have been made possible with tort reforms enacted in 2022 and 2023 by the Florida Legislature and the governor in 2022 and 2023 to reduce runaway litigation costs that have driven losses within the industry.
During Congressional debate over reform, insurance insiders predicted that consumer costs will rise sharply and that ongoing lawsuits will stabilize, stabilize, stabilize, and decrease if they take years to pass through court.
Before the 2025 legislative meeting began, Yaworsky joined Gov. Ron Desantis at a press conference promoting the number of insurance companies that filed low or unchanged rate requests.
However, critics said reforms have gone too far, leaving policyholders with less leverage for claim disputes while increasing profits for insurers. The bill was supported by plaintiffs’ attorneys who would revive the requirement for insurance companies to lose claim disputes to pay plaintiffs’ legal fees. It passed the house, but did not advance in the Senate.
According to the analysis, premiums increased to 41 of 61 carriers with more than 1,000 insurance contracts.
Cincinnati Insurance Co. has charged the largest premium increase (45.7%) among a group of Florida registered insurance companies. That policy number fell from 1,631 to 1,009, but its average premium increased from $11,014 to $16,044.
The average covered risk for a Fairfield, Ohio-based company is $2.8 million.
Truck Insurance Exchange’s 2,390 policyholders saw the second-largest increase of 16.1% as premiums swelled from $2,059 to $2,390.
Premium costs for 20 companies increased by less than 2%, with 17 customers on average falling premiums between 0.2% and 9.3%.
Low-premium companies include Florida-based Edison, Florida Peninsula, Security First, Monarch National, American Integrity, ASI Priority, Safe Harbor, Orange and Safeport. Citizen client costs fell 1.9% from $3,348 to $3,283.
Sun Sentinel’s calculations excluded two companies from the fourth and first quarters and third companies from the first quarter. Fourth quarter data reported by the two companies included obvious glitches that had skewed results. The third company did not report any data in the fourth quarter, but resumed reporting in the first quarter. Including the company’s data in the analysis will make the first quarter increase artificially appear larger.
The Condominium Association saw third quarter relief as premiums fell 5.3% after a 2.5% and 3.0% decline. Condominium Association premiums averaged 103% between June 2022 and June 2024.
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: May 31, 2025 7am EDT
