{"id":269591,"date":"2026-05-13T15:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269591\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T15:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T15:49:08","slug":"south-florida-homeowners-weigh-risks-as-some-go-without-insurance-ahead-of-hurricane-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/269591\/","title":{"rendered":"South Florida homeowners weigh risks as some go without insurance ahead of hurricane season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Florida<\/a> ranks among the most expensive states in the nation for home insurance, prompting some South Florida<\/a> homeowners to forgo coverage altogether \u2013 even as hurricane season<\/a> approaches.<\/p>\n

According to Bankrate, only Nebraska and Louisiana outpace Florida in average home insurance<\/a> costs.<\/p>\n

In recent months, extreme weather already has underscored the risks.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Strong storm creates lots of damage in a Miami-Dade neighborhood<\/p>\n

01:50<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

An EF-0 tornado struck Palm Springs North<\/a> ahead of the official start of hurricane season, damaging homes and forcing residents to rely on neighbors for help.<\/p>\n

“It was so violent that you couldn’t see anything,” resident Carlos Varela said. “All you saw was stuff flying through the air”.<\/p>\n

For some families, recovery comes without the financial safety net of insurance.<\/p>\n

\"US-NEWS-WEA-FLA-FLOODS-RECORDS-3-FL<\/p>\n

Flooding lingers at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport on Thursday, April 13, 2023. Fort Lauderdale issued a state of emergency as flood conditions continued through many areas. An astounding 26 inches of rain fell in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday. (Joe Cavaretta\/South Florida Sun Sentinel\/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

South Florida Sun-Sentinel<\/p>\n

In Fort Lauderdale<\/a>‘s Edgewood neighborhood, historic rainfall three years ago<\/a> led to severe flooding that left several feet of water inside homes, including those owned by Tony Schrieber.”The water that day came very fast,” Schrieber said.<\/p>\n

Schrieber owns two houses on the same block. One was covered by flood insurance<\/a>, the other was not. After restoring both properties, he said he recognized the value of flood coverage, calling it “reasonable compared to the damage it caused”.<\/p>\n

Still, Schrieber has chosen not to carry hurricane insurance on one of his properties.<\/p>\n

“It’s a risk decision,” he said. “It’s just one I’ve made on this property that I might not make on another. I’m not naive to hurricanes<\/a>, it’s just a calculation”.<\/p>\n

Industry experts say his decision is not uncommon.<\/p>\n

Some homeowners opt to “self-insure” if not required to have coverage<\/p>\n

An insurance agent with Keyes Coverage estimates that roughly 15% of South Florida homeowners without mortgages also go without home insurance.<\/p>\n

Without lenders requiring coverage, some homeowners opt to “self-insure,” setting aside personal savings instead.<\/p>\n

Mark Bluh, an insurance agent with decades of experience, said the cost of insuring an average $400,000 home in Miami-Dade County<\/a> can reach $10,000 per year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

About 60% of that total is tied to hurricane and wind coverage.<\/p>\n

Even Bluh said he understands the temptation to drop coverage.<\/p>\n

“I am in the business, and I know how much it costs,” he said. “I would seriously consider doing away with some of those expenses when I finally pay off my mortgage”.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, he cautioned that self-insuring requires discipline many homeowners lack.<\/p>\n

“A lot of people have the best intentions,” Bluh said. “But after a couple of years, they see money accumulating and think they can hold off”.<\/p>\n

As South Florida enters another hurricane season, homeowners face a difficult balance between rising costs and the unpredictable threat of severe weather.<\/p>\n

In:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Florida ranks among the most expensive states in the nation for home insurance, prompting some South Florida homeowners…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":269592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4502,506,17053,6641,2927,28,30,29,9047,15656,1846,115724,1064,10173,807,7214],"class_list":["post-269591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-atlantic-hurricane-season","tag-broward-county","tag-flash-flooding","tag-flood-insurance","tag-flooding","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-homeowners","tag-homeowners-insurance","tag-hurricane","tag-hurricane-preps","tag-miami-dade","tag-severe-weather","tag-south-florida","tag-tornado"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=269591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/269591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/269592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=269591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=269591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=269591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}