The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation's latest quarterly report shows a rate increase, following record-low rate filings and even a decrease last year.
The 2025 first quarter report revealed property insurance base rates ticked up slightly by 0.3%, meaning that of the 10 most recent reports, nine show rate hikes, making it about a 40% increase for Central Florida policyholders since 2022.
That's the year the Florida Legislature passed what lawmakers call "historic" insurance market reforms to help recover the state's insurance crisis.
Getting out of a crisis
Among other things, the reforms made it harder for customers to sue insurance companies to incentivize more private insurance carriers to do business in Florida to relieve Citizens Property Insurance Company, the state-funded backstop insurer of last resort, which carries most of Florida's policies, thus, the most liability.
A spokeswoman for the OIR said that, in 2024, homeowners insurance costs fell 0.7% and a 12th new company joined Florida's insurance industry, showing that the market is attracting new businesses. According to the office, Florida's insurance market is the healthiest it's been in more than a decade.
"The impact of past legislative reforms continues to show progress in our current market," Florida's Insurance Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said. "We must continue on this path and not turn the clock backwards."
Some experts are on board
At the Insurance Information Institute, Director of Communications Mark Friedlander is happy with this progress and a proponent of the reforms. III is a nonprofit that analyzes insurance market data and shares information to educate consumers and help shape policy.
Despite this latest report rate bump, Friedlander said it's more notable how the reforms got the state's lowest rate filing averages in the nation last year. All insurance companies are annually required to file their rate changes with their state's governments, and though Florida's have been among the highest, that finally changed in the last quarter of 2024.
"S&P, global market intelligence, reported that Florida had the lowest average rate filing in the U.S. last year. Most states had double digits, many had over 20%. Florida had 1.0%. That's basically flat." he said.
With Citizens insurance policies backed up by tax funds and the costs of lawsuits and reinsurance being passed down to consumers, Friedlander said Florida's insurance market structure was not sound and would have never improved without the reforms -- which focused largely on these factors.
"When you reduce the volume of lawsuits, you bring down expenses, and that leads to better pricing for reinsurance, which insurers pay," he said. "As a homeowner, approximately 40% of your premium bill is reinsurance. So, if reinsurance costs flatten or decrease, so do premiums."
What drives up costs?
When it comes to rates, there are two kinds -- a company's base rates and policyholders' individual premium rates -- and their prices go up for different reasons.
Base rates can be affected by inflation, but Friedlander said that with inflation in single digits now, state rate filings are not what consumers should be worried about.
One thing that he said can and does affect premium rates, however, are tariffs.
"No matter what Florida insurers do, if tariffs impact construction costs, that's going to impact everybody's home insurance bill. And there's nothing the Florida insurance commissioner or insurance companies could do about that. It's out of their control," he said.
The III conducted a study and showed the average replacement cost increased a cumulative 55%, from 2020 through 2023. Friedlander said this is a national figure that was due to the supply chain disruption driven by the pandemic. These days, he said, tariffs could be the driver.
"The cost of construction materials and labor is always increasing, and many times, at a higher rate than inflation. And that's really an important point because, if we look at data, say, six months from now, and it shows rates keep going up, that might be due to tariffs," he said.
High premiums? Shop around!
Regardless of these complications, Friedlander said many homeowners in Florida are enjoying lower premiums. He said annual check-ins with insurance companies are key to ensuring the best deals or avoiding a shortfall. Policyholders can also ask for a re-quote or take advantage of the state's wind mitigation and home hardening program.
He also said that, for the first time in a long while, Floridians finally have the option to shop around for insurance again and said he strongly suggests that anyone who isn't happy with their current policy do just that.
"Insurance agents have been reporting that they are achieving significant rate reductions for their customers — as high as 50% less than last year. So the bottom line is, if your rates keep going up, if the price of your policy keeps going up, call your insurance agent, ask them to shop your policy, because the market has become competitive. There are better prices out there for the same level of coverage," he said.
In Orange County, median is close to $2,200 and the lowest is Stillwater Property And Casualty Insurance Company with $853. The highest right now was listed at more than $6,000.
The OIR spokeswoman said it will take time for the full impact of the reforms to be felt by consumers.
Lillian Hernández Caraballo is a Report for America corps member.
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