As Hurricane Season Hits, More Homeowners Pushed to Florida’s Last-Resort Insurer | Insurify

Since the beginning of the 2024 hurricane season, Citizens Property Insurance, Florida's insurer of last resort, picked up more than 20,000 home insurance policies in June and another 6,776 by mid-July, according to the insurer's data. This uptick is in direct contrast to Florida's legislative efforts to bolster the commercial home insurance market, reduce Floridians' dependency on Citizens Property, and lower its total policy count.

As of July 12, Citizens Property had 1,220,271 multi-peril home insurance policies on its books. While that number is well below the insurer's highest levels of more than 1.4 million policies last year, it's also far higher than the 500,000 or fewer policies the insurer is aiming for.

With many high-risk states like Florida facing a probable "hurricane season from hell," some insurers are already sending out non-renewal notices. When homeowners can't find coverage through the standard home insurance market, they turn to Citizens Property Insurance.

Florida's home insurance struggles

Floridians pay the highest average home insurance rates in the country, at $11,759 annually, according to Insurify data. The average rate from Citizens is nearly double that, at $22,165 per year.

Homeowners in the state are familiar with nonrenewals and insurers pulling coverage. In 2023, over a dozen insurers stopped writing new policies, stopped renewing policies, or withdrew from the state's market, forcing many homeowners to get insurance through Florida's insurer of last resort.

In May, Progressive sent out more than 100,000 non-renewal notices to limit its risk exposure. More private insurers could follow suit.

Citizens CEO Tim Cerio told WPTV in West Palm Beach that the increase in policies isn't unexpected given the time of year.

"We're going to slow [reassigning policies to private insurers] as we get into hurricane season," he said. "…So our actual policy count will tick up again — what we expect. But, in the fall, when the takeouts resume towards the end of hurricane season, we should start to come down."

The state's effort to reduce Citizens' policies

Citizens is Florida's largest home insurer, but it's not meant to be a long-term insurer for most people. Its main focus is to be a "last resort" for homeowners whom private insurers have turned away. Ultimately, Citizens aims to move those policyholders back to private insurers.

In its 2024 insurance report, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) said Citizens was experiencing consistent policy decreases for the first time in several years and was approved to move more than 350,000 policies to different insurers. So far, only 132,000 have been reassigned.

Recent legislation approved the use of surplus lines carriers to take over coverage for vacation and secondary homes from Citizens.

What's next? Insurance rate hikes and hurricane season

WeatherBELL Analytics has already forecast five to eight hurricanes could make landfall in the U.S. this hurricane season, with three to five of those being major. The U.S. could be in for a "hurricane season from hell," WeatherBELL predicted.

More hurricane damage means insurers will likely face higher claims costs, Jacob Gee, an insurance agent with Insurify, said. "This would likely lead insurers to reassess their risk models and adjust insurance rates accordingly."

Citizens is already moving toward higher home insurance rates in 2025. The insurer is seeking rate increases of 13.5% for multi-peril policies and 14% for renters, condos, mobile homes, and single-family homes for next year.

If the Office of Insurance Regulation approves the increases, it will be the largest rate hike in Citizens' history and only the second time it's received approval for a double-digit rate increase.

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