So few insurance companies will even insure a home in Florida now. Wish I knew a few more available.

Wow… in my over-taxed country I should be quite happy. Right about $800/yr for home insurance with extended value added (the pinballs).

Where in Florida? I wish my policy was 2500 a year, I have full wind mitigation and mine is double that with a 5% hurricane deductible.

Primarily has to do with the extreme weather risk increase (hurricane frequency, increasing strength) in Florida due to global warming. Not all insurance in the US is so outrageous, although even here in CA the fire risk in certain areas is bumping rates up (though not to FL levels).

Here in Texas, I pay about $25000 a year just in property taxes for my house. On top of insurance and utilities. So for a house (yes, a nice house but still a non remarkable house in a neighborhood of thousands of houses, not some palace on the prairie) that I own free and clear, I pay more than $2000 every month just in taxes. Just to put the “the USA and TX in general is a tax paradise” in perspective.

Not trying to brag, but in-between you guys is AL where the property taxes are less than 10% of that! Not having been from here (IL originally), I've found this place to be a well-kept secret in terms of lifestyle/taxes. For reference, we pay about $1300/year in property taxes and live in a nice spot.

Home Insurance is different than car insurance.
It's not about your past claims, which indicates how safe a driver you may be, it's about future potential risks due to the location of your house.
Also, rising construction costs, can make it more expensive for insurance companies to rebuild homes that are damaged or destroyed.

With climate change, stronger more powerful, more frequent storms, more flooding, over development and Florida's low elevation above sea level - it is bound to cost more for insurance in Florida. This is probably just the beginning of the insurance increases.

There is also the mismanagement of the insurance industry by the state.

I feel your pain. My homeowners insurance seems to go up by at least $500 a year, and it's pretty difficult to find another insurer. My neighbors went to AAA and say they are saving on their insurance (they had to join AAA to get the insurance but I don't think they had to be members to get a quote). I'm with Heritage and am paying $3000 a year for homeowners insurance (I'm not in a flood area, though I also carry seperate flood insurance)and $1900 a year on car insurance - on a 10 year old car - and I work from home, so I don't drive much at all. I've never (knocking on wood)had a homeowners claim or auto claim.

I have a client who just bought a home in Florida. They are having a lot of issues getting it insured. Many insurance companies have left the market which has decreased competition. From what he said there is a state run insurance option but it’s not great.

I can imagine. It’s probably a lot cheaper up in Maine or similar.

$25k property tax is insane.
Over here in tax hell our property tax caps out at roughly $400. It can never be higher than that for a single property and basically all single homes reach the maximum.
Our taxes might not be hell afterwards.

Owning a house here is actually incredibly cheap, apart from the electrical prices that has skyrocketed due to EU, Germany and France.

I live in Tucson and was paying $1000 a year with Nationwide. Then they raised it $560 with no explanation.

When I called them they said that inflation was the cause. Inflation was at about 8% then so how do they get $ 560.

Canceled and went to Progressive back at $1000 a year again. We'll see how long that lasts

And you get a much better quality of life/more services than in the States.

Well everything that shines isn’t gold.
But it could be far worse.

TX has no income tax, normal sales tax, and (apparently) high property tax. EU has high sales tax (VAT), low property tax, ?? income tax...

The man's gonna get it one way or another.

Dude the insurance problems in FL are insane, the rates keep going up, mine is up to 5k and it's not even great insurance.

FL's primary problem beyond the storms is the laws that were passed in FL that essentially force insurance companies to pay for complete coverage of replacing a roof for any damage sustained. After those laws were passed, it's been a huge burden on insurance companies because essentially any licensed roofer could put in a claim that an old roof was "damaged" in a storm, and they would get a new roof paid for. I know a bunch of folks that did exactly this, and even had multiple roofers over the years offer to do this for us when fixing a leak or some other roof issue. They basically get huge paydays from insurance companies, why bother fixing little thing when they can work out some easy fraud for a brand new roof. Roofers get business, clients get free roofs, everyone won....

... except it's just caused rates to continually raise and many insurance companies were buckling under the pressure and just abandoned the state. Large percentage of Floridians are stuck having to use the state run insurance which is bursting at the seams and it's prices are getting ridiculous. Our new house we bought a year ago, not a single company would cover us except one, and they wanted 8k for coverage. So yea, I was forced to stick to the government backed one.

Our property taxes are insane as well. The state is going to hell fast and our leaders here are wasting their time banning books, fighting Disney for having an opinion, and being mad at drag queens. But hey let's not do anything about sky rocketing property taxes, insurance, and housing costs

I have a very modest home to put it mildly...but here in PA its about $600 for insurance on my place with some add on coverage for flooding and sink holes. Property (school) tax is $2700/year.

I can imagine. It’s probably a lot cheaper up in Maine or similar.

Not if you go OCONUS. I'd rather be taxed hard and AT LEAST get something than be taxed little by little with annual increases and then when I go to file a claim for the first time in nearly 20 years, I'm told "well, if the damage is less than your deductible, you have to pay it".

Thr hell??? I've paid my insurance for 20+ years, and I can't get a simple fix because of some stupid technicality. Screw that.

Alot of people that have the financial means are ready to hop across the pond and are at the very minimum looking into it while comparing and contrasting the US vs other areas for living.

It's much more complicated than that. You have no state income tax.

Want to see high taxes? Come visit WI or IL.

I use "Security First" insurance on an oceanfront in St. Augustine and am ok with their prices. Might be worth a look.

My policy went up to 8k from 3k. I let it go. My deductible was around 12k. I figure 12k and an 8k premium in one year Ill just buy my own fucking roof.

Yea I never have filed a claim in 27 years so I'm not sure what they were thinking. Plus my home is paid for so I'm not sure why I waste my money.

You are basically correct but don't forget the insurance company's adjuster has to approve the roof replacement by inspecting it themselves.....

You guys should move here to New York city. Besides being a modern urban paradise we don't have to deal with hurricanes so much.

I wish my home insurance was that cheap. It has been sky rocketing up every year for the past 3-4 years. Like 50%+ increases. Between that and my property taxes it's well over my mortgage payment. I suspect a lot of insurance companies raise premiums so much just because they don't want to insure homes in the gulf coast area. Shop around. I switched early this year. Savings were minimal but did get a much better policy. Saved more on my auto insurance which also had out of control increases.

Lol. https://www.thestreet.com/travel/its-only-april-and-over-10000-new-yorkers-have-already-moved-to-this-state

I’m in the same boat, which insurance companies did you go with?

We are pretty well rounded here in Colorado. My insurance is around $2k, property tax around $5k and state income tax about 4%.

The roofers here know what to look for and say to get the adjuster on their side, i've dealt with so many folks who basically got free roofs here in FL cause of this nonsense and have spoken to roofers who explained how they will get it done. Theres always a chance an adjuster can find some reason to say no, but it's often word against word and as long as there is some evidence that can be pointed to as storm related, BOOM.

We have higher housing costs, higher housing and property taxes as well. So I mean whose paying more overall? I have family in WI too and when they pay a fraction of the price for their homes, their insurance is only a several hundred while he we are seeing insurance for our houses at 5k+. My best friends who live a block away pay nearly 8k for their home insurance. Property taxes are insane and keep going up, and our utilities have been getting out of control as well.

Yay no income tax, but you pay a hell of a ton more for EVERYTHING else

It's not just Florida.... I live in a concrete 1800 sqft house in rural western Maryland not near any flood potential and we rarely have severe weather and my homeowners has nearly doubled since 2020.

Yes, I was gonna buy general homeowners but most companies wouldnt write the policy without me taking a hurricane policy too. I assume this was a strong arm attempt to refill their coffers.

I don't believe so. I own property in Wisconsin and Florida. FL insurance is higher I'll grant you that, but you might not be aware how much state income tax really is. Plus all of the other costs having to deal with winter (tires, hearting fuel, different set of clothes, etc), it all adds up.

Why do you think everybody is moving to those states?

Explain please.

Person A lives in FL on the coast, House appraisal is $1M and paid for. There’s a policy covering wind, water and storm damage. Policy costs $10k per year and there is 5% deductible.

Next door lives person B with similar house. However this person has NO policy covering wind, water and storm. Therefore they have $0 payment each year and 100% deductible.

Storm rolls in and destroys both houses and both will require complete tear down to foundation and rebuilding same. Expected rebuild cost is $1M. The governor declares area a national disaster and FEMA comes in. They offer assistance to any homeowner affected.

So what happens to persons A & B?

It seems for some homeowners the pendulum has swung the other way and insurance companies are changing their adjusters’ findings and underpaying on claims.

https://www.insurancejournal.com/news/southeast/2022/12/14/699370.htm

We’re looking at retirement homes and the FL insurance stuff is a huge red flag for us.

Yep and that's cost insurance companies a ton as the amount of cases they were fighting just kept mounting up.

That's been changing actually, there has been a slow down in the flow to FL especially the South region cause of the lack of housing and the rising costs. This is where states like NC, TN, and others are starting to see big gains as FL now is becoming not worth it unless you want to live out in the sticks in Central or Northern areas. But the work is mainly situated in the cities which are becoming nightmares financially.

Yep, have a family friend who is an adjuster and also knows how strict the underwriters are getting too. Higher insurance, less choices, and they are getting extremely stingy on paying up. My last claim I had to put in for legit reasons kept getting denied and it was a heck of a fight.

Think my house insurance is £150 a year but then I give the government like 40% of half my wage

Now I know why you are called CrazyLevi.

I think FEMA also can provide low-cost loans for rebuilding, but I think those are designed to help cover the home-owner's deductible.

If your deductible is actually 100% (because you don't have any insurance), I doubt they will just give you what would be essentially a 0% down mortgage.