Gov. Ron DeSantis announced Monday that the state’s insurer of last resort has half a million fewer policyholders and will slash rates for its remaining users.
Policyholders with Citizens Property Insurance Corp., the state-backed program providing insurance to high-risk Floridians, will see their rates reduced in the spring by 8.7% statewide. South Florida counties like Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm-Beach will see the largest decrease in rates, averaging roughly 13.4%.
Moreover, the number of policies held by Citizens dropped to its lowest level in 14 years: from 1.3 million in 2023 to 400,000. This is considered a good sign for Florida’s insurance market because, generally, the larger Citizens is, the worse the market is doing.
“So, you’ve never really seen, I don’t think, rate reductions — certainly with Citizens — at this level anytime in modern memory that anyone can talk about,” DeSantis said during a press conference in Davie Monday morning. “And so today, we are happy to announce historic reductions. … The vast, vast majority of Citizens policyholders will receive a significant reduction.”
Citizens Insurance has faced its share of controversy, particularly after it expanded following major hurricanes after 2018 as private companies fled the market. Premiums have since skyrocketed, leaving Citizens the sole option for many.
And in 2023, a new state law allowed Citizens to steer claim disputes to the Division of Administrative Hearings instead of going into state trial courts, Politico reported. Citizens had a staggering win rate of 90% of challenged claims through this hearing process, compared to winning just 55% of the time when claims would be battled out in circuit court, ProPublica reported.
By county, here are the four that will see the largest rate reductions:
- Broward: 27,000 homeowners will see an average reduction of 14.1%.
- Miami-Dade: 42,000 homeowners will see an average reduction of nearly 14%.
- Palm Beach: 26,000 homeowners will see an average reduction of 11.9%.
- Monroe: Homeowners with full coverage will see an average reduction of 11.3%.
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