Florida residents are trying to keep up with the state’s soaring insurance prices and are concerned about losing their houses, according to recent reports.
Ellen Fincher, a Vero Beach resident, told WPTV that she is concerned about losing the property she has lived in for the past ten years because she cannot afford her current insurance rate of $13,000. “I can’t, not when you’re on a fixed income,” she told West Palm Beach TV. “Every day I get up and think, ‘Well, do I start packing?” she blurted out.
Residents in the Sunshine State currently pay the highest home insurance premiums in the nation. According to the Insurance Information Institute (Triple I), the average insurance premium for Florida homeowners in 2023 was $6,000 per year, up 42 percent from 2022.
Premiums have risen due to variables such as increased litigation, climate change risks, and the departure of large insurers in recent years.Climate change is expected to increase the frequency and severity of natural disasters such as storms and flooding, leading to the departure of many businesses. This, in turn, is expected to cause an increase in damage claims.
Senior citizens are among those most affected by increasing insurance premiums, as many are on fixed incomes or Social Security, and they frequently reside in older homes that may require costly maintenance work.
According to Richard C., a Palm Beach County resident who requested anonymity, “the insurance situation in Florida is untenable.”
“After taking three years to settle a roof claim, our insurance company has been raising rates astronomically,” he told me.
“In 2023, our $470,000 home will cost $5,400 to insure.” We just received the renewal for 2024, and the rate has risen to $7,000. “This includes a 2% deductible for hurricane damage,” he explained. “They have denied a recent claim for a water leak in our home, which will now cost over $5,000 out of pocket to fix.”
According to Richard, Florida’s continuous insurance crisis will force many thousands of people out of the state. “We are seniors and these kinds of increases will force us to make choices between insurance and daily living costs,” he went on to say.