Paying for home owners insurance in Florida

[SL6827]

If one more bad hurricane season hits soon, could Citizens become the only game in town?

 

[hrhdhd]

So every single person knew it was a scam then?

If it's too good to be true, it usually is.

 

[SL6827]

If it's too good to be true, it usually is.

Right. But they had no idea to begin with but found out after the fact. I'm sure some did know what was happening.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

If one more bad hurricane season hits soon, could Citizens become the only game in town?

Due to the location of our home, Citizens is the only company that will insure us now.

 

[SL6827]

Due to the location of our home, Citizens is the only company that will insure us now.

Right. They have the most customers in Florida now.

 

[SL6827]

It's bad when you see people who have their house paid for, still have to sell it because of taxes and insurance.

 

[CinderEmma94]

Homeowners insurance being insane is the main reason we still rent. We could absolutely buy a house but we haven’t because of the insurance situation. Florida is our home, and we don’t particularly want to move out, so we continue to pay someone else’s mortgage and hope that they don’t have to sell it while we live here because of the rising costs. Or jack our rent through the roof when our lease is up at the end of the year. Renters insurance is reasonable but it makes me a little nauseous to think about home owners insurance, and we live in the center of the state, nowhere near the coast.

 

[SandyinMonterey]

We almost moved to Florida in 2006. Lighthouse Point to be exact. My husband was offered a job there. Looked into auto and home insurance and back then it was insanely high. More than what we were paying in California at the time. The insurance company I had at the time wasn't writing home insurance any more. Was told would probably have to go under state umbrella which was horrible coverage.

 

[DLgal]

It's bad when you see people who have their house paid for, still have to sell it because of taxes and insurance.

There is no such thing as a paid for house. There will always be something that requires an output of money, perpetually, when you own a house.

 

[Willow1213]

It's funny, we lived in Jacksonville from 2018 - 2020. My homeowners on a 3 year old house was $1200 a year with a decent deductible. Car insurance about $100/month for 2 cars. Understand that would have gone up over the last 3 years... but I consider that extremely reasonable. In 2020 we moved to Texas, NOWHERE NEAR THE COAST! My homewoners is $4200 a year (and climbing), car insurance more than double the previous cost. Same cars. Never had a homeowners claim in 3 houses, only car claim was for a windshield (and I'll pay OOP next time that happens....)

Cost of insurance is going through the roof and unless government regulations stop it somehow, it will only get worse.

 

[fla4fun]

Big fraud. People were scammed into getting a new roof put on by con artist and insurance companies had to foot the bill. The people didn't realize this was all a big fraud though. Cost the insurance companies big time.

Yep. At least two of my neighbors got new roofs as a part of this, and they couldn’t understand why I had mine repaired instead of replaced (I have a tile roof instead of shingles, and had tile left from when the house was built, so a repair was easy). One neighbor had a small leak many years ago which had been repaired and the other had no roof issues at all.

 

[tvguy]

There is no such thing as a paid for house. There will always be something that requires an output of money, perpetually, when you own a house.

But still thousands cheaper than renting.

 

[DLgal]

But still thousands cheaper than renting.

Again, that's location dependent.

I've done the math. I've used the rent vs.buy calculator for my area. It says "buying will never be cheaper than renting in your zip code."

Here, buying is a terrible financial decision unless you can pay in cash and avoid a mortgage entirely. But the property taxes will always exist. And the insurance, which is going up everywhere, and the maintenance.

 

[SL6827]

There is no such thing as a paid for house. There will always be something that requires an output of money, perpetually, when you own a house.

Amen. The county will always own your house. People who have paid off their mortgage still owe the county ever year with taxes.

 

[tink1970]

It's bad when you see people who have their house paid for, still have to sell it because of taxes and insurance.

This happens after every bad season of storms...in 2004/5 in Florida and again after 2020. It's nothing new, per se but perhaps exacerbated at times by other factors. I remember a co-workers' mother selling her (long paid off) house because the homeowner's policy going up to $45,000 (yes, I typed this correctly) in 2007 . That said, there is, for the time being, always someone willing to buy near the water and take the risk...perhaps that will change but until then the insurance companies will raise prices-some will pay, some will not.

 

[SL6827]

And think, if, when home vaules go down, those taxes will not go back down.

 

[DLgal]

Amen. The county will always own your house. People who have paid off their mortgage still owe the county ever year with taxes.

It's not even just the taxes. It's the upkeep and maintenance too. A house is a liability. It pulls money out of your wallet every year, even after you have paid off the loan (for which you also paid tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars extra in interest).

People like to look at what their house is "worth" after so many years and forget to add in all the interest, taxes, and maintenance they paid along the way. If you eventually sell the house, you MIGHT recoup some of that, but usually you will break even, if that, on the total cost of ownership over the time you lived there (when adding in all the taxes, maintenance, etc). It's not just about the price tag on the house when you bought it. This is the biggest financial mistake people make when they buy a house: ignoring the total cost to own it.

 

[ak517]

Due to the location of our home, Citizens is the only company that will insure us now.

We are going through this now, except due to age and location, on a 2-bedroom condo in south FL. I purposely didn't want to be on the water because of this issue, and apparently I still chose the wrong side of the road. Now all that's left for us is Citizens. I agree with the above discussion about choosing the higher deductible options, assuming it's a palatable amount of money to fork over in an emergency.

Again, that's location dependent.

I've done the math. I've used the rent vs.buy calculator for my area. It says "buying will never be cheaper than renting in your zip code."

Here, buying is a terrible financial decision unless you can pay in cash and avoid a mortgage entirely. But the property taxes will always exist. And the insurance, which is going up everywhere, and the maintenance.

Agreed. There are numerous studies that show it is currently wildly cheaper to rent than to own across most metro areas in the U.S., for instance: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/us-cities-cheaper-to-buy-37261080. We only own in HCOL areas because our rent would have been the same as our mortgage, taxes, and HOA, however it is actually becoming more affordable for us to live in Manhattan than Miami.

 

[DLgal]

We are going through this now, except due to age and location, on a 2-bedroom condo in south FL. I purposely didn't want to be on the water because of this issue, and apparently I still chose the wrong side of the road. Now all that's left for us is Citizens. I agree with the above discussion about choosing the higher deductible options, assuming it's a palatable amount of money to fork over in an emergency.


Agreed. There are numerous studies that show it is currently wildly cheaper to rent than to own across most metro areas in the U.S., for instance: https://www.apartmenttherapy.com/us-cities-cheaper-to-buy-37261080. We only own in HCOL areas because our rent would have been the same as our mortgage, taxes, and HOA, however it is actually becoming more affordable for us to live in Manhattan than Miami.

At current interest rates, we can't get into a house with monthly house payment under $8500. Our rent for a similar house is $4200. It's a no brainer to keep renting. Until the monthly payment to own matches or is less than comparable rents in the area, we are renting and investing the $4000/month difference in an index fund.

 

[tvguy]

Again, that's location dependent.

I've done the math. I've used the rent vs.buy calculator for my area. It says "buying will never be cheaper than renting in your zip code."

Here, buying is a terrible financial decision unless you can pay in cash and avoid a mortgage entirely. But the property taxes will always exist. And the insurance, which is going up everywhere, and the maintenance.

How renting can be cheaper just doesn't make sense to me. Your rent check has to cover your landlord's mortgage, insurance, upkeep and profit. How can the rent be less than those costs without bankrupting the landlord?