{"id":284441,"date":"2026-05-26T07:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/284441\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T07:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T07:02:10","slug":"report-climate-change-increases-insurance-costs-for-floridians-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/284441\/","title":{"rendered":"Report: Climate change increases insurance costs for Floridians | State"},"content":{"rendered":"

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014\u00a0Climate change is fueling higher insurance premiums for Floridians, according to a new report.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

The average home insurance premium in Florida increased 75% between 2021 and 2025, according to The Coalition for an Insurable Future. That\u2019s roughly double the national average.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The coalition includes economists, researchers, and former Rep. Carlos Curbelo, a Republican who represented part of Miami-Dade County in Congress.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The number of extreme weather events increased significantly since the 1980’s, putting strain on the insurance market. There were 16 such events between 1980 and 1984, according to the report.<\/p>\n

That increased to 112 between 2020 and 2024 – including Hurricanes Ian, the costliest storm in the history of Florida.<\/a><\/p>\n

Billy Rodgers owns a home south of Fort Myers that flooded during Ian. Rodgers said his insurance company went bankrupt and refused to pay out his claim after the storm.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, his insurance premium has increased by roughly $2,000 a year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We got hit bad, everything here doubled,” Rodgers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lisa Miller,<\/a> former Florida deputy insurance commissioner, said that severe weather isn’t the only problem. She said litigation increased costs for insurance companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The state accounted for roughly 80% of the nation’s homeowners insurance claims, Miller said, before Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a law<\/a> making it harder to sue insurance companies.<\/p>\n

“A lot of times there was no reason to sue an insurance company,” Miller said. “It was just profitable to do so.”<\/p>\n

The report notes that reinsurance costs also increased. Reinsurance is essentially ‘insurance for insurance companies,’ according to Investopedia<\/a>. It’s when an insurer transfers some of its risk to reduce liability.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reinsurance costs increased 72% over the last decade, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All of this leads to more instability in the insurance market – and higher costs for homeowners. Almost 20% of home units in Florida are uninsured, the report said. That is the sixth highest in the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Higher costs could push more homeowners out of the market, the report said, further increasing insurance premiums.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Miller pointed out that rates have started to stabilize<\/a> as more insurance companies re-enter the market. But it could take time for the price of paradise to drop in Southwest Florida.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s hurt me,” Rodgers said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY, Fla. (WINK) \u2014\u00a0Climate change is fueling higher insurance premiums for Floridians, according to a new report.\u00a0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":284442,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,33090,9503,8280,117069,58662,6874,1521,4571],"class_list":["post-284441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-home-insurance","tag-insurance","tag-insurance-costs","tag-insurance-premium","tag-insurance-premiums","tag-property-insurance","tag-southwest-florida","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284441","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=284441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/284442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}