JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Citizens Property Insurance policy holders will likely be paying more next year for their home insurance policy.
In a unanimous vote Wednesday morning, the Citizens Board of Governors approved a 14% price hike for policy holders -- covering single family homes, condominiums, mobile homes and rental properties.
- If you live in Duval County, that means you could be paying $4,082 instead of $3,581 for your premium.
- In St. Johns County, the average premium could jump from $3,509 to $4,000.
- And, in Clay County, the average premium would increase from $3,264 to $3,720.
The proposal will go to the state Office of Insurance Regulation for review and potential approval.
READ: Citizens 2025 Rate Kit
The news comes as industry experts have been reporting that Florida’s property insurance market is starting to stabilize -- pointing to eight new insurance companies entering the market this year in Florida. Private insurance companies have reported profits as well.
News4JAX asked Insurance Information Institute spokesman Mark Friedlander if the insurer of last resort’s proposed rate increase is evidence that progress isn’t actually happening.
“One important point to keep in mind is Citizens’ customers typically pay much less than a private market customer. In fact, the gap is about 30% to 40%. So even if the 14% rate increase is implemented, Citizens’ customers most likely will be paying quite a bit less than private market insurance,” he said.
Friedlander said Citizens is trying to decrease the number of policies it has -- they successfully moved about 400,000 customers to the private market since last October.
But at the same time, 200,000 new customers have been added to Citizens, which is still growing at about 5,000 new policies a week.
Friedlander says Citizens’ property insurance hike is necessary so the state backed insurance companies rates can get closer to the private market.
“The fact that citizens is still growing at 5,000 policies a week, what does that tell us? It’s still a very large gap between the Citizens rates and the private market. It’s not meeting that 20% goal,” he said. “So if [the private market] rate is over 20%, then Citizens keeps the existing policy.”
We want to know what you think. How do you feel about the proposed 14% rate hike for Citizens’ policy holders and what is your strategy for finding a lower rate?
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