What It Takes to Buy Insurance in Florida

Kiplinger editor Elaine Silvestrini shares her story.

- Elaine Silvestrini

THE chaos in the Florida property insurance market has engulfed most every homeowner in the state, myself included. In the six years that my husband and I have lived in our house in Orlando, our homeowners insurance bill has more than quintupled.

Florida’s vulnerability to hurricanes, problems with fraudulent roofing claims, and regulatory issues are big contributors to the state’s property-insurance crisis. National insurers barely have a presence in the state. Smaller insurers are folding up their tents, refusing to take on new customers or teetering on regulators’ watch lists. The ones that soldier on are charging rates three or four times the national average.