Florida’s Property Insurance Market: Stabilizing Amid Reforms

Yes, premiums are still expensive, however premium renewals are now commonly dropping and as more of the problems that led to the crisis, particularly legacy litigation left in the system, works it’s way out – there's likely to continue to be continued additional options and continued lower prices on the way.  

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to the Brian Mud Show. It's the info you
need to start your day in the Bomb Beaches and
the Treasure Coast. Florida's property insurance market stabilizing a mid reforms.
So last year Florida's property insurance market showed signs of
stabilization thanks to legislative reforms. This year we are seeing
that in fact, Florida's property insurance market has been fixed,

(00:26):
but doesn't mean that it is everything great, and policies
are cheap again now and they may never be cheap
for any number of reasons. But for the first time
since twenty fifteen, insurance companies actually collected more in property
insurance premiums in our state than they paid out last year.
That was a huge step forward what we see in
the twenty twenty five Property Insurance Stability Report, recently released

(00:48):
the underlying factors behind what's going on in our property
insurance market that are leading to a fix. Most recently,
nine point seven percent of homeowners as originated in Florida. Nationwide,
we still have seventy one and a half percent of
all litigation. That is down from eighty percent a couple

(01:11):
of years ago. But we had a lot of people
that are rushed when the reforms were passed to try
to get lawsuits going. So a lot of those are
still in the system. So that's the first pieces. There's
still a lot to overcome there, but we've made a
lot of progress. Defense costs for the lawsuits that are
still out there, they've dropped by eighteen percent per claim,
and then new legal process serving has declined by twenty

(01:33):
five percent year every year. And so what we are
going to see continued improvements as that litigation normalizes. There's
a lot of room for improvement there. Market share. If
you take a look at the private insurance market holds
ninety percent of all homeowners policies now ninety three percent
of condo units. That means citizens is down to ten

(01:55):
percent for homeowners policies, seven percent for condos, and we
have a net just under seven hundred thousand policies that
have shifted from citizens to the private market. And then
you take a look at reinsurance. Reinsurance costs dropped two
percent last year, they are flat this year, so that
is showing a repairing market and delinquencies. No insurance have

(02:21):
faced delinquencies over the past year. None are at risk
of delinquency proceedings in Florida this year. And so yeah,
premiums are still expensive, but renewals are now commonly dropping.
And the key thing is there's, again, with what I
just kind of laid out, so much room for the
litigation crisis to continue to improve. And as that does,

(02:42):
things will just continue to get better. And it's remarkable.
You had two major hurricane landfalls in our stay last
year and we still saw that kind of improvement That
shows to obilding.

Speaker 2 (02:52):
All right, it's Florida headlines. So Florida will allow bear
hunting for the first time since twenty fifteen, State Fish
and Wildlife Commission voting in favor of the proposal. Yes,
it'll take place over three weeks in December. Supporters say
it'll help manage the growing bear population. Opponents call it
unnecessary and cruel. Meanwhile, the Florida Python Challenge has a
new record at WC, announcing the results yesterday. Over ten

(03:13):
days last month, the record two hundred ninety four invasive
Burmese pythons were caught in the Everglades and Collier County's
Tailor Stansbury crowned as the ultimate grand prize winner. She
was awarded ten grand for removing sixty Burmese pythons, and
dozens of law enforcement officers getting bonuses thanks to a
state program. Governor d Sant has announced yesterday the Florida

(03:34):
awarded bonuses to forty Hillsborough County deputies. Money is from
the Florida Law Enforcement Recruitment Bonus Payment Program, offering a
one time five thousand dollars bonus to new hires. Those
are your headline