With Florida homeowners by far already paying the highest home insurance premiums in the country, especially in this part of the Peninsula, costs are projected to climb again in 2026 as insurers continue adjusting to hurricane risk and the ongoing rebuilding costs, according to recent findings.
And as we’ve reported, that’s been a major component of the migration away from the coast after 2022’s Hurricane Ian to inland areas where residents generally don’t have to pay as much. Realtors have repeatedly talked about it, and the real estate numbers have been showing it.
Floridians pay 181% more home insurance than national average
One thing is for certain in the research by data scientists for online insurance company Insurify: Florida will hang on to its crown of the most expensive state for home insurance.
The typical annual premium, $8,292, is more than double the national average. In fact, Floridians pay 181% more than the national average, and it’s highest in the southern part, “where hurricanes threaten dense concentrations of expensive homes,” according to Insurify findings.
‘9 most expensive natural disasters on record are hurricanes’
Following 2024’s hurricanes Helene and Milton that also pounded Southwest Florida, there were roughly 300,000 home insurance claims, contributing to an 18% rate spike in 2025, the stats show.
“Florida remains the most expensive state for home insurance as a result of hurricanes, which can cause economic damages ranging in the hundreds of billions,” said Insurify Senior Economic Analyst Matt Brannon. “The nine most expensive natural disasters on record in the U.S. have been hurricanes.”
Second place Oklahoma pays $3K less a year than No. 1 Florida
By the end of 2026, Insurify was projecting this week, a rise to $8,458 a year. Second place Oklahoma pays $3,000 less annually than here.
“It could be worse,” Brannon said. “2025 was the first year in a decade without a landfalling hurricane in the U.S. If 2026 brings an active hurricane season, premiums could rise more sharply in 2027.”
Median income not keeping up on pace of home insurance rates
What complicates it even more is median household income is also not keeping up with the pace of home insurance rate increases.
Overall inflation is at 16% since 2021, but home insurance premiums have increased nearly three times faster, up 46% in that time, according to Insurify.
The lowest state pays $1,100 per year. For Florida: Close to $8,500
Florida’s insurance rates have already been high so its percentage increase isn’t as dramatic as states where they haven’t historically paid as much, like the bottom two, Vermont and Utah.
The Utes are expecting to pay $1,370 or about 50 bucks more, a 4% increase that’s still $7,000 less than our region. For the Green Mountain State: a 1% increase that means an extra $7 out of their billfold for a total of $1,094.
Increasing home insurance prices left less to spend on groceries
Separate March efforts by loan marketplace Lending Tree for 2020 through 2025 found Florida’s home insurance rates rose 49.5%, with inflation up 27.9%. And from 2020 through 2024, the most recent year it had for Sunshine State work pay, rates jumped 48.9% while median income climbed 29.2%, a sizeable gap that left less for groceries, utilities and other necessities.
“This trend has put strains on family budgets across the spectrum,” said researcher and licensed insurance agent Rob Bhatt of Lending Tree. “Homeowners insurance is an essential need.”
Insurance rates adjusted to cover soaring cost of construction
The tariffs and trade wars at the end of last decade that preceded the inflation surge ,and as widely reported, helped mangle supply lines are also a major factor. Construction supplies have become more costly than ever, according to the new Lending Tree and Insurify reports.
“The costs of building materials and labor have also gone up at higher-than-normal paces,” Bhatt said. “Insurance companies have had to repair or rebuild more homes than normal, and the cost of rebuilding each one is more expensive than it was before 2020. Unfortunately, insurance companies raise their rates to account for this type of growth in their expenses.”
Building materials up 15% in past year; much more than previous
And as predicted at the beginning of last year, it’s been getting worse with the confusing clap on, clap off tariffs, more recent economic policies and a haywire stock market with the worst Wall Street meltdowns since President Trump was last in office.
Insuify noted in its report: “Home insurance premiums are tied, in large part, to the cost to rebuild a home. The price of building materials has jumped 15% in the past year. It had increased only 7% in the past two years combined.”
Newly ‘disrupted supply chains will ripple out to increase costs’
Now there’s been more uncertainty with vital shipping artery Strait of Hormuz in the sudden war with Iran, in which Fox News reported April 7 on Trump’s “several conflicting statements” in recent days, just before the latest ceasefire. Gas prices are up nearly 50% since the U.S. attacks started.
Beyond loss of lives, the war and strait circumstances already have major repercussions and disruptions for Americans, according to a March 25 report by logistics network expert Vidya Mani, associate professor of business administration at the University of Virginia and visiting associate professor at Cornell University: “Soaring gas prices and disrupted supply chains will ripple out to increase costs in every store and sector of the economy (including) building material prices.”
This article originally appeared on Marco Eagle: Rising homeowners’ insurance: SW Florida already pays more than most
Reporting by Phil Fernandez, USA TODAY NETWORK – Florida / Marco Eagle
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
