Florida's Biggest Insurer Cuts Over 600K Policies After Hurricane Helene - Newsweek
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
CLOSE X By Aliss Higham US News Reporter
A property insurer of last resort in Florida is set to hand over hundreds of thousands of policies to the private sector later this month due to overwhelming demand.
Earlier this year, regulators in the Sunshine State approved proposals that would allow private insurers to take policies from the state's Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Citizens, which was created by the Florida Legislature in 2002, provides insurance to eligible Florida property owners unable to find insurance coverage in the private market. It is the largest insurer in the state.
On August 2, insurance commissioner Michael Yaworsky signed an order allowing 10 private insurance carriers to take on 413,808 policies from Citizens beginning in late October. According to a report by Florida Politics, in the last two weeks, a further 235,035 were approved for removal beginning in November.
Newsweek has contacted Citizens for verification on this number via email outside of normal working hours.
The number of Citizens policies has soared in recent years as private insurers dropped customers and raised rates due to losses caused by payouts and litigation. Citizens has 1,250,791 policies in force as of August 2024. In August 2019, five years ago, it had 420,366 active policies.
A view of damaged homes in an area affected by Hurricane Helene in Keaton Beach, Florida, on October 3, 2024. Florida's biggest insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, is set to hand over more than 600,000...A view of damaged homes in an area affected by Hurricane Helene in Keaton Beach, Florida, on October 3, 2024. Florida's biggest insurer, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, is set to hand over more than 600,000 policies to the private sector, beginning in October. MANDEL NGAN/AFP/GETTY
"Citizens is committed to helping its policyholders find coverage in the private market," its website reads. "As required by Florida law, Citizens' Depopulation Program matches Citizens policyholders with insurance companies interested in removing their policy from Citizens and providing private-market coverage for their policy."
The depopulation will arrive not long after Hurricane Helene hit Florida and other eastern states at the end of September. With a death toll that has now surpassed 200 people, with hundreds more still reported missing, it is shaping up to be one of the worst storms in U.S. history.
The latest data released by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation shows that 84,400 claims have been made by homeowners and businesses since Hurricane Helene hit, with 42,219 of these being for residential properties. So far, 1,340 of these claims have been closed with a payment, while 2,712 have been closed without a payment. More than 38,000 insurance claims are still open.
Florida residents are grappling with some of the highest home insurance rates in the country. According to Bankrate, the average insurance cost for a home valued at $300,000 in October 2024 is $5,527 per year—way higher than the rate for a home of the same value in neighboring Georgia ($2,071) and Alabama ($2,745).
The average home insurance premium in Florida is $3,242 more expensive than the national average of $2,285. In some areas, costs can climb to in excess of $8,000. The state average is second only to Nebraska, where the average premium on a $300,000 home is $5,652.
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Good luck and best wishes to the people in FL and those nearby that have to deal with hurricanes. Up here in snow country we also have had our home owner's insurance double from last year, due to storm damage, still it's nowhere near what Floridians have to deal with.
My condominium association fees here in Columbia, Maryland are going up due to insurance rates going up in Maryland.
If a house needs to be built on stilts to protect it from hurricanes and storm surges, maybe they shouldn't live so close to the ocean.
Well after Chimney Rock, Ashville and Swannanoa NC were washed away by a hurricane 400 miles inland where the hell do you recommend people start living .... Greg?
Your compassion for your fellow man is moving.
Everybody lives somewhere where there is a potential hazard. But if you know the perfect place, where they don’t get storms or fires or earthquakes or landslides or sinkholes or termites, and it’s never too hot or cold, I’m sure we’d all love to hear where that place is.
You bet we would!
Although Florida has sky high rates other states are getting hit with increasing rates because natural disasters are gettin bigger more frequent and deadlier. Florida also has the highest auto insurance rates in the country.
Don’t start that stupid BS with me Greg. Look at the number, intensity and time frames that will give you a good idea.
Some will always choose to bury their heads in the sand because they prefer to listen to liars like Trump and other rightwing conservative climate deniers who reject science because they don't want to actually do anything about it. Since the expense of dealing with climate change is expensive, they've chosen to just ignore it or actively lie about it regardless of how many people will die.
My oldest living friend passed recently after moving from boring Bainbridge Island to Rotunda West.
The eye of a hurricane went right over them last year, they survived the first one this season, now the widow is cleaning up after Helene and putting up the shutters for Milton.
Fun in the sun my ass !
Oh, for Christs' sake.
That probably won’t do any good, but props for trying.
Ditto!
Some people have no compassion for their fellow human
Yep. Everybody in the country saw their auto insurance rates climb thanks to the supply chain issues we experienced thanks to the Covid shutdowns. My car insurance has more than doubled and that's for someone with no claims, no accidents and no tickets in the past 20 years. My homeowners insurance has also gone up and my agent told me that is due to the increased costs of claims across the nation. Everybody pays when these disasters happen, but living in Arizona I don't actually have the disaster hit home so the impact is only money. But I do expect that the prices are going to continue to increase as the disasters will continue to get bigger.
I recently heard of an increase in armed car thefts in the Pheonix area. That can't help rates across the state.
Would love to see that information because I cannot find info on armed car thefts and carjacking. Some areas have always been problematic but part of me wonders if that increase is similar to shark attack stories where the data shows the frequency of attacks is fairly stable per capita but due to the 24/7 nature of news reporting gets broadcast more broadly.
Car theft in Arizona has actually dropped and we're currently rated at 19th in the competition. In 2023 the vehicle theft rate was 267 vehicles per 100,000 residents, this is a decline from 2022 when Arizona ranked 15th.
Arizona Vehicle Theft Task Force (AVTTF) | Department of Public Safety (azdps.gov)
Like everywhere else you need to pay attention to your surroundings. But yes, it cannot help insurance rates. A bigger concern IMO for rates is just the number of car accidents that occur in Phoenix. There's so much distracted driving and the volume of vehicles out on the road at any given time is high. There's an average of 105 car accidents in Phoenix each day. It seems like you cannot drive more than a few miles on the freeway without the aroma of skunk weed drifting in thru the car vents.
Phoenix Car Accident Statistics 2024 - Traffic Collisions (bleamanlawfirm.com)
It also doesn't help that the Phoenix metro area is huge. Stretching from the northwest to the southeast valley you can drive 100 miles and never leave city. While the rate of accidents is declining, I also have to wonder if that's also due to the increase in population rather than just more careful driving. Anyway it's looked at, none of this can help reduce the cost of insurance.
I'm rather glad that I'm retired and don't need to drive across the valley to go to work anymore.
According to data from the National Hurricane Center, the worst decade for hurricane strikes in the US was 1941-1950 - 24 hurricanes with 10 classified as major. 2011-2020 there were 19 hurricane strikes in the US with 4 classified as major.
According to data the storms do not appear to be getting more frequent or bigger, it is just the opposite storms are getting weaker to some degree. Although from 1961-1980 data showed an extreme drop in hurricanes in the US with 12 per decade, these years seem to be the outliers when you look at the decades prior and the decades after.
There is just many millions more people living in hurricane prone areas, and flood zones, which in turn
causes higher death tolls, and higher monetary damages.
National Hurricane Center and Central Pacific Hurricane Center
What? Storms are getting worse and more severe. Due to global warming. What are you saying???????????
They are getting bigger and more severe. Despite your claims.
I think I believe jw's link to the hurricane centers to be more accurate than what a lot of people are trying to peddle to us.
Don't let facts get in the way of your opinion.
Don't let reality get in the way of your opinion.
www.nasa.gov /general/are-hurricanes-getting-stronger-we-asked-a-nasa-scientist-episode-21/
Are Hurricanes Getting Stronger? We Asked a NASA Scientist: Episode 21 - NASA
2-2 minutes 10/19/2022
Emily Furfaro
Oct 19, 2022
Are hurricanes getting stronger?
When you say, “Are hurricanes getting stronger?” in the sense of, “Are they going to be category six?” The answer in that case will be no. Because of physics, hurricanes do not reach more than a category five. However, we do see more and more hurricanes in the Atlantic every season getting to category three, category four or category five compared to seasons 40 years ago.
NASA does have a huge part in the studies of hurricanes and it starts mainly with the development of all these different instruments that we put on satellites and we put in orbit.
As scientists, we are always looking at the reasons why there’s this possibility that more and more tropical cyclones are becoming category three or more in every hurricane season. There is a large influence from climate change. The warmer the water, the stronger and the more energy this system is going to have and it’s going to just increase in intensity. So, are hurricanes getting stronger? The answer to that will be yes. We are seeing more and more tropical cyclones become category three, four and five. So in reality yes, we’re seeing that change every season in the last several years. Learn more:
[END VIDEO TRANSCRIPT]
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That you didn't look at the link jw provided.
Is there an Atlantic Hurricane Center? I just checked and there is not. Never mind.
Apparently its not only that Florida residents have to face the increasingly high costs of homeowners insurance-- but there are now actually insurance companies that have stopped selling these policies in Florida entirely-- because the costs are so high!
A friend of mine who lives in Florida told me that some insurance companies are leaving.
I just googled it:
The Florida insurance crisis: Why are insurance companies leaving Florida?
Florida's insurance crisis is the result of several factors, including hurricanes and litigation, that have caused home insurance companies to pull back, leave the state or even go out of business.
Homeowners in Florida face some of the highest home insurance rates in the nation, with dwindling coverage options.
A number of insurance companies have gone bankrupt in th last few years and many of the large insurance companies have pulled out of Florida .
the company in this art is run by the state of Florida as is the insurance company of last resort.
Florida has for a long time been the goal of retirees. Even my mother spent her winters there at the condo that my brother and I eventually inherited. I don't know how those who are living on government pensions alone could afford all the types of insurance they require.
They can’t and many seniors of fixed or low income are leaving Florida.
What?!!! You mean these storms/hurricanes/devastation AREN'T creating more beachfront properties??????????
Weeellllll....it's getting too expensive to live there
So for all the big s-it-mockers over wild fires in California driving up the cost of insuring homes and property. . . people in Florida. . .go on and say it:
HELP!!!
And Florida's governor will stop mocking other states this week in 3, 2, 1, . . . . Hurricane Milton is coming and promising 'Big ugly Things.'
This crap has been going on in California for the last year. Insurance companies are canceling homeowners policies for completely made-up reasons. I lost mine this month. Never missed a premium in 14 years, and they just cancel me with no conversation and no appeal. Apparently, pretty much everyone in the state lives in a dangerous wildfire area. I’d love to report that our insurance commissioner is fighting for the citizens, but I hear only crickets from Sacramento.
Somone told me their Mom was canceled recently due to a drone flyover during renovations.
They moved all of the debris or had it recycled correctly and correct the first list of deficits,
then they were told that the trees and vegetation were too close to the home for fire safety and the policy was still canceled.
Bummer. I can empathize with that mom, because starting all over again is going to be rough and tough with a new policy (somewhere).
Same here. They claim they flew a drone over us, too. Based upon this thorough examination they determined that we had mold. The only thing I can think about that is that there are trees in the adjacent lots that drop pollen and maybe that’s discoloring the tiles on my roof. I do not have mold.
And yeah, I have foliage next to the house - like anybody in the suburbs. I don’t live in a forest.
It does no good to address the “problems.” They’ve already told us it wouldn’t change anything.
I heard about the no new house coverages from some insurance carriers, did not know they were dropping current homeowners. What concerns me pisses me off is these people who live 'out of bounds' with the big swankiest of dwellings (in fire country) who drive up the fire 'relief' costs and then regular incorporated dwellers get higher rates or their coverage removed! Bummer.
Sorry you lost your home insurance coverage. It must be 'mad' and nauseating (can you think through it or does your mind get foggy just dealing with this?) to have to renegotiate a new policy. . . and having to restart at the high(er) rate again.
I'm so sorry that happened to you.
I heard about the no new house coverages from some insurance carriers, did not know they were dropping current homeowners. What
concerns mepisses me off is these people who live 'out of bounds' with their big swankiest of dwellings (isolated in fire country) who drive up the fire 'relief' costs and then regular incorporated dwellers get higher rates or their coverage removed! Bummer.Hurricane Milton is currently the 4th most powerful hurricane ever formed in the western hemisphere according to a meteorologist from an Orlando tv station. The people in Florida better pray it diminishes quite a bit before landfall.
They are saying thanks to Helene, it should be a 3 when it hits.
Here is a piece of information that many seem to have missed, Insurance companies are just that, companies, or they would be called insurance charities. they are in the business to make money for their shareholders. Period.