Florida homeowners pay the nation’s highest average insurance premium
Florida homeowners pay the highest average homeowners premium in the nation. Four laws since 2019 aimed to fix the market. Here is what the record shows.
TAMPA — Florida homeowners paid the highest average homeowners premium in the country in 2022, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The average for the most common policy type (HO-3) was $2,677 in Florida, compared with $1,569 nationally. The NAIC's state data runs about three years behind. Its latest homeowners report, released May 21, 2025, covers 2022.
Newer state data shows costs kept rising after that. Insurance Journal analyzed Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) quarterly filings. It found the average annual premium in Florida rose 34% between late 2022 and early 2025, to $3,023. Averages vary widely by county. As of March 31, 2026, OIR reported an average of $7,863 in Monroe County and $2,105 in Sumter County. Premiums fell in 51 of 67 counties between January and July 2026, according to the state's July 2026 stability report.
Cars cost more to insure, too
Florida drivers spent an average of $1,371.99 on auto insurance in 2023, compared with a national average of $1,281.92, according to NAIC figures published by the Insurance Information Institute. In 2021, auto insurance took 2.46% of median household income in Florida, compared with 1.50% nationally, according to the Insurance Research Council.
More Floridians go without health coverage
In 2024, 13.6% of Floridians under 65 had no health insurance, about 2.43 million people, according to KFF. The national rate was 9.8%.
Millions of adults struggle to read
An estimated 24% of Florida adults read at or below Level 1, the lowest levels in the federal PIAAC survey, based on data from 2012, 2014 and 2017.
The laws that reshaped the market
From 2019 to 2023, Florida lawmakers passed four major laws aimed at insurance costs and lawsuits.
2019: HB 7065, assignment of benefits. Before this law, homeowners could sign their insurance benefits over to contractors, who could then sue insurers directly. The bill limited those agreements and required notice before a lawsuit. Rep. Bob Rommel sponsored it. The House passed it 96-20 and the Senate 25-14. Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it May 23, 2019.
May 2022: SB 2-D. This law created a $150 million state reinsurance program and required OIR to publish more insurer data. Sen. Jim Boyd sponsored it. It passed the Senate 30-9 and the House 95-14. DeSantis signed it May 26, 2022.
December 2022: SB 2-A. This law banned assignment of benefits on new property policies and created the Florida Optional Reinsurance Assistance program. Boyd sponsored it. It passed the Senate 27-13 and the House 84-33. DeSantis signed it Dec. 16, 2022.
2023: HB 837, tort reform. This law changed attorney-fee rules and bad-faith standards, and shortened the deadline for negligence suits. Reps. Tommy Gregory and Tony Fabricio sponsored it. It passed the House 80-31 and the Senate 23-15. DeSantis signed it March 24, 2023.
What the state reports
OIR credits these laws with stabilizing the market. As of July 2026, it said 21 new companies had been approved to write residential policies since the reforms. Florida's share of the nation's homeowners lawsuits fell from 79.16% in 2020 to a preliminary 41.29% in 2025. Citizens Property Insurance had nearly 255,000 policies by September 2026, down from about 1.4 million in September 2023.
What critics say
House Democrats opposed HB 837. "I can't vote on hope. I need facts," said Rep. Anna Eskamani of Orange County. Average premiums still rose 34% from late 2022 to early 2025, after the 2022 reforms and before the recent cuts.
The record shows premiums climbed after the 2022 laws and have started to fall in most counties in 2026. Whether the laws caused the recent drop is disputed: the state credits them, and critics say consumers paid first.
What's next
Florida voters choose a new governor and attorney general on Nov. 3. The deadline to request a mail ballot is Thursday, Oct. 22, at 5 p.m. See our Tampa Bay Voter Guide for dates and details.
How we reported this: This story was drafted with AI assistance from the sources linked above. Every factual claim was checked against those sources by an editor before publication. See an error? Contact us and we'll correct it.
Correction, Oct. 11, 2026: An earlier version of this story said Florida homeowners pay an average of $8,471 a year for insurance, citing a commercial rate-comparison site. That figure is not supported by state or national insurance data. The story now uses figures from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, and its section on who has held power was replaced with the specific laws, votes and their documented effects.