Skyrocketing Premiums — Driven by Insurer Profiteering, Lax State Regulations and Tort Reforms, and Congressional Inaction — Are Pushing Florida Families Into Foreclosure
WASHINGTON, DC – New reporting from Insurance Business Magazine confirms that property insurance costs have moved from a household budget concern to a frontline cause of driving Floridians from their homes, as the state now leads the nation in foreclosure filings. Unlocking America’s Future (UAF) has extensively documented how insurance company profiteering, lax state regulations and tort reforms combined with the failure of Florida’s Republican congressional delegation to act on the crisis are fueling this disaster.
“Florida’s insurance crisis is hurting families’ budgets and costing them their homes,” said Kyle Herrig, spokesperson for Unlocking America’s Future. “Insurance companies are posting record profits, paying executives tens of millions of dollars, and closing more than half of all claims without paying a penny while Florida families face foreclosure because state officials and regulators are doing insurers bidding. And Florida’s Republican members of Congress have not only refused to act — they’ve voted to defund the very programs that protect Florida homeowners from disasters. Floridians deserve representatives who put their interests ahead of the insurance and fossil fuel industries.”
Florida posted the highest foreclosure rate in the country in 2025 at 0.44% of residential properties, with Tampa registering the worst rate among major U.S. metros. October 2025 alone saw more than 4,100 foreclosure starts statewide. Florida’s average annual home insurance premium hit $8,292 in 2025 — an 18% jump in a single year — while cumulative statewide rate increases have reached approximately 30% since 2022, and roughly 40% in Central Florida.
UAF’s report, Florida’s Insurance Crisis: How Homeowners Pay More While Insurers Profit, found that Florida home insurance premiums have skyrocketed 54% since 2019, making the state the most expensive in the nation for home coverage. One in five Florida homeowners no longer has home insurance at all, meaning that when disaster strikes, they face the full cost of rebuilding out of pocket.
In 2023, Florida instituted a tort reform law pushed by the insurance lobby and Gov. DeSantis making it significantly more difficult for policyholders to sue insurance companies when their claims were denied or underpaid. As a result, in 2024,14 Florida property insurers closed more than 50% of the claims filed by homeowners without paying a penny to cover damages. Nine other Florida insurers closed between 40% and 50% of claims with no payment.
Florida’s Republican congressional delegation has done nothing to address the crisis — and has actively made it worse. UAF’s most recent report, Florida Congressional Republicans Fail to Take Action on Worsening Home Insurance Crisis, documents how Florida House Republicans voted for a March 2025 budget bill that cut nearly $300 million from FEMA’s regular budget and left the agency’s Disaster Relief Fund so underfunded that FEMA was forced to defer expenses and rescind already-promised grants. A majority of those same Republicans had previously voted against a September 2024 spending bill that provided $20 billion to FEMA’s disaster relief fund — just weeks before Hurricanes Helene and Milton struck Florida and sent insurance premiums surging by 18%.
On top of that, Florida House Republicans have accepted nearly $2 million from the oil and gas industry, whose products drive the climate change intensifying Florida’s hurricanes and insurance costs. Four members have accepted nearly $20,000 from the PACs or employees of major property insurers.
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