Question for FL homeowners re: insurance

[HeatherFeather]

We are probably relocating this fall to the Tampa area for DH's job. He is AF. I am looking at homes in Valrico/Brandon area. Can anyone give me some idea what homeowner's insurance runs you? I found a web site listing rates for Hillsborough County from 1200-1700. Is that for a month? A year? I can't figure out what is what....

TIA!

 

[DVC~OKW~96]

Many factors go into determining how much home owner's insurance will cost. The size, value and age of the home (some insurance agencies won't insure a home older than ten years) as well as the location, and the zoning of the area. If you are in a flood zone, you will pay more.

We spend about $2000 per year for a home less than five years old not in a flood plain, not near the coast (central Florida) and have never had a claim (which will drive up the rates astronomically).

Home owner's insurance in Florida is a major problem at this time. Many companies refuse to cover homes here, and that reduces the competition and drives up the costs, too.

Be sure you understand completely how much you will be paying for home owner's insurance before you agree to buy a house.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

I have heard from several of my friends in FL that homeowners insurance is sometimes hard to find. Since you are military you may want to check with USAA - they have given us the cheapest quote by far for our homes in Northern MD and Charleston, SC. We PCS next year from MD (hoping for Tampa or Orlando for DH to go back for his MBA) so I am curious to see what the FL rates are as well.

Good luck with your move! I have heard that MacDill is a nice base. There's another DISer in Tampa that has given me some great info on the Tampa area (LongsX3) so you may want to PM her as well if she doesn't see this thread.

 

[Golf4food]

That should be per year. Prices around the Tampa area will be higher than some other places in Florida due to the frequency of landfalling hurricanes in the area.

 

[RadioNate]

I have heard from several of my friends in FL that homeowners insurance is sometimes hard to find. Since you are military you may want to check with USAA - they have given us the cheapest quote by far for our homes in Northern MD and Charleston, SC. We PCS next year from MD (hoping for Tampa or Orlando for DH to go back for his MBA) so I am curious to see what the FL rates are as well.

Good luck with your move! I have heard that MacDill is a nice base. There's another DISer in Tampa that has given me some great info on the Tampa area (LongsX3) so you may want to PM her as well if she doesn't see this thread.

USAA will only insure in FL if you are active duty being assigned to a FL base. I also think it has to be a mandatory military initiated relocation. I'm not sure if you choose to go to FL they will insure. They have a pretty narrow window of eligibility.

They will not insure any non-active duty or retired military. They will also not insure any dependent members.

They still insure our cars but will not write a policy on our home.

We have made a non-hurricane claim (Fay who thankfully was never actually a hurricane) and it didn't raise our rates significantly.

We pay less than 2k.

My dad is with Citizens in Palm Beach county and pays nearly triple what we pay on a house 1/3 of the size.

 

[ClarabelleCowFan]

USAA will only insure in FL if you are active duty being assigned to a FL base. I also think it has to be a mandatory military initiated relocation. I'm not sure if you choose to go to FL they will insure. They have a pretty narrow window of eligibility.

They will not insure any non-active duty or retired military. They will also not insure any dependent members.

They still insure our cars but will not write a policy on our home.

We have made a non-hurricane claim (Fay who thankfully was never actually a hurricane) and it didn't raise our rates significantly.

We pay less than 2k.

My dad is with Citizens in Palm Beach county and pays nearly triple what we pay on a house 1/3 of the size.

Wow. That is good to know - I'll have DH call USAA to check on our situation. Thanks for the heads up. I'm not sure how his orders will read while he is in school.

 

[RadioNate]

Wow. That is good to know - I'll have DH call USAA to check on our situation. Thanks for the heads up. I'm not sure how his orders will read while he is in school.

Call and check with him. Our move here was 2 years ago and they wouldn't insure us.

I don't know what their policy is lately. FL also has some anti cherry-picking laws and I'm not sure how they apply to USAA.

 

[HeatherFeather]

Thank you all for the insight. This will be a mandatory PCS for an AD member so perhaps we can get USAA to insure us. That is who we have now for pretty much all of our banking and insurance. We looked at their website but it just basically said that they are issuing very few policies in FL. I hadn't looked into it much further as we don't actually have orders yet and may find ourselves looking at a different assignment. DH has also put in for assignments at Hurlburt Field, Pensacola NAS, and Langley AFB.

We are also tossing around the idea of renting. I think maybe this will give us a better idea if we are going to want to stay in the area. This will probably be the last assignment my husband HAS to take before retirement so if we really love the area, he may try to get a gov't job at MacDill after this assignment.

Again...appreciate the replies and information.

 

[jmskinner]

Hi from another military wife. We are stationed at MacDill. We are further south than Brandon and love it. The traffic in the Brandon area makes me nuts but mainly settled on where we are just because of the school and house.

Next years policy starting in July is going to be $1200 and we pay $400 for flood. One story home with 2600 sq ft, to give you more of an idea. Not in a flood area so it is cheaper, but we wanted to be safe. We purposely also chose to be more inland (east side of I75) because we would be further away from the water and figured insurance would be cheaper.

We are enjoying the area and housing is really cheap right now, so you could get a great deal. I don't think they will drop much more, hopefully.

You can PM me if you would like anymore info.