A new survey of Florida homeowners is drawing sharp criticism from the insurance industry, with Triple-I arguing that its findings do not reflect the state’s rapidly improving property insurance market.
The University of North Florida poll found that 55% of insured Florida homeowners saw no signs the property insurance market was improving, while another 26% thought conditions were getting worse. Just 18% said the market was improving and rates were likely to fall.
Mark Friedlander, senior director of corporate communications at the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I), said the results were sharply at odds with broader market indicators.
“The results of this survey appear to be intentionally skewed toward an anti-insurance industry false narrative and do not reflect the reality of a vastly improved Florida marketplace, which most consumers are benefitting from,” he told Insurance Business.
“Combined with survey respondent interviews of Florida claimants who had bad experiences with hurricane losses, it raises serious questions about the legitimacy of the survey’s findings and how it was conducted.”
The survey of 1,511 homeowners was conducted online for the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel in July. It reported a margin of error of plus or minus 3.18 percentage points, weighted respondents by demographic and geographic factors and disclosed an overall response rate of 1.2%.
Friedlander said the contrast with broader market data was striking. “Florida, to us, is one of the most stable property and casualty markets in the US today,” he said. “That's an incredible statement to make after the turmoil we went through for so many years with the crisis.”
“It is much healthier, but you wouldn't know that if you read the survey results,” he added.
After years spent helping homeowners through premium increases, non-renewals and shrinking carrier appetite, agents may now have to convince clients that market conditions have begun to change.
Florida’s major property insurance overhaul, SB 2-A, took effect in December 2022 and included changes to property insurance litigation, claims handling and reinsurance support.
Several market indicators now look different from those seen during 2022.
|
Market factor |
Before reforms / 2022 crisis |
Latest figures |
|
Citizens policies in force |
1.07 million at Sept. 30, 2022 |
254,918 at Sept. 25, 2026 — roughly 76% lower than four years earlier |
|
Homeowners rate direction |
Average approved homeowners rate in July 2022: +15.33% |
30-day average homeowners rate request in September 2026: -4.8%; Florida’s average statewide rate change for 2025 was -0.92% |
|
Carrier capacity |
By July 2022, seven insurers representing about 421,000 Florida policies had been declared insolvent since October 2019 |
OIR said in May 2026 that 20 new P&C insurers had entered the Florida market since the reforms |
|
Reinsurance conditions |
State officials said in 2022 that reinsurance availability had eroded and available coverage had become significantly more expensive |
Citizens said in June 2026 that reinsurance rates had fallen nearly 30% over the prior year, citing increased capacity in traditional and catastrophe-bond markets |
The figures are not a direct measure of how much every individual homeowner is paying. Rates vary substantially by location, property characteristics, carrier and catastrophe exposure, while some of the measures above use different reporting periods.
Independent agents have spent several years helping clients through sharp premium increases or even non-renewals. Even as capacity returns, homeowners who experienced that period may not immediately perceive lower rates as evidence of a broader market recovery.
In the UNF survey, among respondents who had lived in their home for at least five years, 47% said their annual premium had increased by at least 50% over that period. One-quarter of all respondents said they had been dropped by an insurer at least once in the past five years.
Friedlander, however, said agents are increasingly reporting better options when they take accounts back to market. “Insurance agents across Florida indicate they are obtaining significantly better pricing for many of their customers’ home and auto coverage because of the improved market conditions,” he said. “Some are reporting year-over-year home premium savings of 40% or more.”
There are also signs of greater private-market capacity. Citizens Property Insurance Corporation said in June that 20 new companies had entered Florida since 2022. Its own policy count had fallen from approximately 1.4 million in late 2023 to around 274,000, representing about 2% of Florida’s residential property insurance market.
More recent figures show that decline continuing. Citizens had nearly 255,000 policies as of September 18, according to comments from the insurer reported by Florida Realtors.
Rates are moving as well. Florida regulators cited S&P Global Market Intelligence data showing the state was the only one to record an average homeowners insurance rate filing decrease in 2025, at 0.92%, compared with a national weighted-average increase of 5.5%.
Florida insurance regulators have also reported average premiums declining in 51 of the state’s 67 counties between their January and July reports, although the scale of those reductions varied significantly by location.
The survey results contrasting with improving market data appear to indicate a perception gap among consumers.
Market-wide pricing and capacity can improve while individual homeowners continue paying substantially more than they did several years ago, particularly in catastrophe-exposed areas. Consumers who experienced steep increases or lost coverage may also be slower to view relatively recent improvements as evidence of a durable recovery.
As rate decreases take their time to settle into the market, insurance agents have more reason to revisit accounts, test renewed carrier appetite and show clients where savings are emerging.
