Home Insurance Is So High in This Florida Town, Residents Are Leaving

[dalton99a]

https://www.wsj.com/real-estate/home-insurance-is-so-high-in-this-florida-town-residents-are-leaving-bb00c96f
https://archive.ph/mUQGC

Home Insurance Is So High in This Florida Town, Residents Are Leaving
In West Palm Beach’s Flamingo Park neighborhood, some homeowners are dropping insurance, and others who can’t are selling
By Deborah Acosta
Oct. 17, 2023 5:30 am ET

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — James and Laura Molinari left Chicago for a two-story stucco home in this city’s historic Flamingo Park neighborhood. The four-bedroom house was a short bridge away from Palm Beach island and walking distance to downtown West Palm Beach.

“We love it here,” said James, who plays golf with his 3-year-old son on Saturdays and can swim year-round in his backyard pool.

Then the renewal for his home insurance arrived. The new rate for the year starting in September was around $121,000 — more than seven times what the Molinaris said they paid last year, and more than 13 times what they paid when the family moved to Florida in 2019.

While they found a better rate from another insurer, at about $33,000 it is still nearly double what they paid last year. The family this month listed the home for sale with an asking price of nearly $3.5 million after determining that insurance costs made staying there too expensive. Others in Flamingo Park told The Wall Street Journal they are drawing the same conclusion.

“The for-sale signs are going up left and right,” James said of the neighborhood.

Florida’s explosion in insurance premiums threatens to ground the state’s highflying housing market. Florida home prices soared more than 60% since 2019, according to real-estate brokerage Redfin. That rate has slowed more recently, and the state’s home prices in September edged up 2.7% over the previous year, Redfin said.

...

[jimfields33]

1. Just great. The blue areas are being wiped out from people moving.

I hope they at least stay in Florida. We need every democratic supporter in Florida.

[redqueen]

3. I would have expected the $3.5 million dollar home areas to be red

[jimfields33]

7. West palm is as blue as you can get. We have wealthy democrats to.

[leftyladyfrommo]

2. Nobody will even qualify for a mtg. That's

Unbelievable.

[onethatcares]

4. $33,000.00 for HomeOwners Insurance

who the fark can afford that?

Looks like they'll be a lot of vacant houses in those neighborhoods with squatters having a field day.

[Happy Hoosier]

6. The people who can afford a $3-4 million dollar home. NT

[redqueen]

17. Exactly nt

[MOMFUDSKI]

11. There is always northern $$$ able to move

to Florida and it will. Problem is that there will be no one left to pick up their garbage. Carry on.

[whopis01]

22. $33k for a $3.5 million home that is 3 foot above sea level

I pay about 1/10 of that for a house that is 1/10 the value.

[Happy Hoosier]

5. How is this a surprise?

We've been warned for a long time that climate change would result in more severe weather, and naturally, higher home-powners insurance. They moved there in 2019..... surely they were aware of all this? But of course, people mabnage to convince themselves that the problem is not real... or will be their kids' problem.

Decisions, meet consequences.

And let me be clear... the public coffers should not accommodate this, and neither should homeowners not in that risk pool.

[AntivaxHunters]

8. That's Florida under Ron DeSantis

[Earth-shine]

23. There's much more to it than DeSantis.

Florida's problems have been accumulating for quite some time.

Many buildings were not built to code 20-40 years ago. This is one of the primary reasons insurance is going up. People have to pay to make repairs just to get the more expensive insurance.

Condos are a form of pyramid scheme. People who get in first and then get out escape the problems made by the initial poor planning.

[Takket]

9. Yeah but you can't "say gay" in schools now which was the REAL problem

And Desantis took care of that so everyone who elected and then re-elected him should be happy to pay those rates.

[onethatcares]

10. the legislature had 2 special sessions

to attempt dealing with this.

They gave the insurance companies what they wanted in the way of rate increases and adding more folks to the insurer of last resort.(Citizens)

Mission accomplished.

[former9thward]

12. This is the house.

I don't know if they have a mortgage or not but if they don't they can consider self-insuring. The chances of a total wipeout is extremely small. I do that with my home in Chicago and so my cost of home owners is zero.

[redqueen]

18. I read about others in Florida doing that actually.

Forgot till I read your post

[ananda]

13. Florida: The Underwater State

... in more ways than one.

[pwb]

14. Way to go DeSantis.

One more reason why Florida is all played out. It is almost unlivable now.

[2naSalit]

15. Self deportation?

[marybourg]

16. They also have been running a roofing scam

whereby everyone gets their new roof paid for by the insurance company.

[Deuce]

20. That is certainly one of the problems...

[Earth-shine]

24. Not us in Delray Beach. We have to buy new roofs just so we can qualify for insurance.

Some of the roofs are actually needed.

[marybourg]

27. Some of that requirement

may be in response to the roof scam. I’m in my 3rd house in AZ and nobody even looked at my roof. Here they just run a measuring wheel around the house and call it good.

[Earth-shine]

28. A lot of our roofs are 50 years old and never had a proper rebuilding.

They just paved over the bad spots.

Now insurance companies wants all new roofs, completely rebuilt, as a requirement for granting insurance.

[Xolodno]

30. Not just in Florida...but in Texas and most of tornado alley.

At my previous company, I had to shove in triple digit rate hikes. The state DOI protested of course but once we showed them all the data, they accepted it. Climate change is a hoax, huh? Sorry the data doesn't lie.

And if they did refuse the hike, we would have probably just non-renew everything and leave the state. Which is exactly what Florida is experiencing. And for a long time, numerous companies have been calling to regionalize Wind Damage insurance across several states and have the Federal Government manage it. But it never gets anywhere, as there is always that one politician that says why should we pay for Texas or New York. And nothing happens.

In California, its well known that several companies have put moratoriums in, despite no major wildfires this year. And if we get another El Nino year, may be another good year. But that's not why they halted new business. Once we get back to drought mode, all that brush is going to erupt. So us, everyone else and reinsurers are gearing up and being very pro active of managing the risk. It's going to get really nasty in a few years.

And it wouldn't surprise me if the moratorium starts hitting other states as well. California just has the largest population, so it gets priority.

[yardwork]

19. Somehow I think the owners of this $3.5 million house will be fine.

[MissB]

21. $121k

[Prairie_Seagull]

25. This sort of thing, while not to the same degree is happening other places.

I can speak for myself and our wildfires this summer and my homeowners went up almost 35 percent and we have been warned of more increases coming. Will this get the attention needed to respond to climate breakdown as we should?

The now cynic in me says not a chance in hell. Funny to, in a way, hope for higher rates if it will shake the right trees.

[LuckyCharms]

26. I pay $1,900 per year in NYS, property and flood insurance combined.

3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1,700 sq ft. nice home.

[Emile]

29. They could hike their deductible to lower cost.

[Ilsa]

31. Sometimes I wonder if half the nation will end up

living in RVs. Walmart will start a new line of business renting out spaces and utilities in their parking lots. (At least the product isn't imported.)

[roamer65]

32. I talked to some in Michigan who sold theirs in FL recently.

Insurance cost was the reason.

The Great Florida Property Crash is coming.

[Deep State Witch]

33. Not Just Blue Areas

I'm doing Zillow porn on Venice, where my MIL lives, to see how much she would get if she sold her 2-bedroom house. The amount of properties up for sale on the Gulf Coast is stunning. Fortunately for her, the prices aren't going down too much yet.