Tallahassee, FL — Florida homeowners got more good news this week as the state’s insurance regulator signed off on a fresh round of rate decreases, continuing a trend that’s been building throughout 2026 after years of some of the steepest premium hikes in the country.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky announced Tuesday that his office had approved significant rate decreases affecting more than 62,000 policies statewide. The Office of Insurance Regulation is also reviewing a separate request for a zero-increase flood rate, according to the announcement.
Part of a Broader Shift
The approval is the latest in a wave of rate relief that’s been rolling through Florida’s property insurance market since the start of the year. Since January 2024, 48 companies have filed for rate decreases and 53 more have requested no change at all, and Yaworsky’s office has now approved four companies to cut rates effective at policyholders’ next renewal.
That’s a dramatic turnaround from just a few years ago, when Florida homeowners paid the highest average premiums in the nation. A statewide actuarial report commissioned by the American Property Casualty Insurance Association found that Florida homeowners and drivers paid nearly $3 billion less for insurance in 2025 than the year before, with homeowners’ rate increases slowing to under 1% and auto rates falling more than 4%.
State-backed Citizens Property Insurance, once the largest carrier in Florida after years of private insurers fleeing the state, has led the retreat from crisis-level pricing. Citizens cut its standard homeowners rates by an average of 8.7% earlier this year, with more than 330,000 policyholders across all 67 counties seeing reductions — some by 10% or more, concentrated heavily in South Florida.
Private carriers have followed suit. Kin Insurance recently announced rate cuts of more than 20% for new and existing customers in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties, the priciest insurance markets in the state, calling it the company’s largest reduction ever in Florida.
Why Rates Are Finally Coming Down
Insurance analysts point to a handful of factors behind the shift, chief among them legal reforms Florida lawmakers passed in 2022 and 2023 that eliminated one-way attorney fees and cracked down on assignment-of-benefits abuse — two practices that had driven Florida’s outsized share of the nation’s homeowner insurance lawsuits for over a decade.
Those reforms took time to show up in policyholders’ mailboxes, but the effects are now measurable: litigation filings tied to personal insurance claims dropped by roughly a quarter in both 2024 and 2025. Seventeen new insurers have entered the Florida market since the reforms took effect, adding competition that’s helped push prices down further.
“We have seen great success in Florida’s market recently, and we hope to build on this momentum,” Yaworsky said of the broader stabilization trend.
What It Means for Homeowners
Despite the improvement, Florida remains one of the most expensive states in the country for property coverage — the statewide average still runs several thousand dollars a year more than the national average, and coastal counties continue to pay two to three times what inland counties pay for comparable homes. Roof age, wind mitigation features, and location remain the biggest factors driving individual premiums.
For homeowners whose policies fall under this week’s approval or one of the other recent filings, the lower rates won’t apply automatically — they typically take effect at the policyholder’s next renewal date, not mid-policy. Homeowners who want to know whether their carrier is among those cutting rates should check directly with their insurer or review filings on the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s website.
With more companies expected to file for additional rate decreases in the coming months, this is likely to be a developing story well into the fall as renewal notices go out across the state.
Sources
- “Florida Insurance Commissioner approves rate decreases affecting 62K+ policies,” WFLA News Channel 8, September 22, 2026.
- Amy Connolly, “Florida home, auto premiums drop nearly $3 billion,” Florida Realtors, September 8, 2026.
- “South Florida Homeowners Are Getting the Largest Rate Cut of 2026,” Live Insurance News, September 2026.
- “Are Florida Homeowners Insurance Rates Going Down in 2026?” LiveCovered, 2026.
