(The Center Square) – Rollbacks of property and car insurance rates that could bring relief to the state’s beleaguered insurance market were announced on Wednesday in Florida.
The state’s property insurer of last resort, Citizens, announced that 73% of Miami-Dade homeowners will receive a premium decrease in 2025, with an average policy decrease of 6.3%. Second-term Republican Ron DeSantis, sharing the news in Miami, said 52% of Broward County homeowners with Citizens policies will receive an average premium reduction of 4.5%.
Statewide, 20% of Citizens policyholders will also receive a reduction in their premiums.
DeSantis also said according to statewide filings with state officials, Geico will have a 10.5% decrease for auto insurance, Progressive will cut auto insurance rates 8.1% and State Farm customers will have a 6% decrease on their auto insurance. He also said other premium reduction filings are in the works.
DeSantis said 11 carriers have entered Florida’s insurance market in the past two years, something he says will help cut costs for consumers.
He also said that one of the signs that Florida’s insurance market is becoming healthy is the reduction in the number of policyholders who have no choice but to seek policies from Citizens, a state-chartered corporation with its governing board picked by the governor.
In 2022, the population insured by Citizens was more than 2 million. This past year, nearly half a million Citizens customers were able to find less expensive policies with private insurers.
“You’re never going to have a stable market if people don’t want to come in and do business here,” DeSantis said. “So we said, we got to have a stable market. We have got to fix some of the things. We can’t control storms. We can’t control inflation nationwide. There’s a lot of things that are beyond our control, but providing a solid marketplace is one, and what happens is if some companies overcharging you, if you have four others to choose from that can give you a better deal.
“The Legislature here in Florida has done more to address these issues over the last many years than any time in the history of the state of Florida.”
Office of Insurance Regulation Commissioner Michael Yaworsky said one of the ways his office is helping to reduce rates is to get customers credit for money-saving additions such as storm shutters or hurricane-resistant shingles.
“We’re seeing litigation rates decrease upward of 30% throughout the state. So the reforms are working,” Yaworsky said. “It does take time for consumers to truly feel all those effects and the impacts, and to a degree, we’re fighting against inflation and other economic factors that we cannot avoid, but we’re seeing good news, and as we move forward, as the governor said, we’re not stopping there.”
