Home insurance premiums in storm-battered Florida are at crisis proportions — with seniors growing increasingly anxious about whether they can hang onto their homes.
Real estate agents and mortgage lenders who spoke to The Post said that underwriters in the Sunshine State are forcing would-be buyers to look for cheaper dwellings.
Meanwhile, existing HOA fees for condo owners have doubled in the past year amid the growing threat from hurricanes.
“With each and every storm, insurance companies either stop writing in Florida or they greatly spike up their prices in response to it,” Ryan Thaler, vice president at Tampa-based mortgage lender CambridgeHomeLoan.com, told The Post.
Seniors in the state who rely on Social Security checks and other sources of fixed income are now pondering what the future holds.
“Every day I get up and think, ‘Well, do I start packing?’” 72-year-old Ellen Fincher of Vero Beach told WPTV-TV.
Fincher, who has owned the $360,000 three-bedroom, 2,800-square-foot home for 10 years, told the station that her $13,000 annual premium has increased to the point where she can no longer afford to pay.
“I can’t, not when you’re on a fixed income,” Fincher said. “You live alone, who will help you?”
Homeowners insurance in Florida ranges from $1,700 to $2,700 per year based on $300,000 in dwelling coverage and $100,000 of liability coverage, according to US News.
The insurance is required for those seeking a mortgage, forcing many buyers to reconsider how much they are willing to spend.
“People are using cash and foregoing insurance on single-family homes,” said Michael Martirena, a luxury real estate advisor at Miami-based realtor Compass.
About 15% of homeowners in the state don’t have property insurance, compared with the national average of 7%, according to the Insurance Information Institute, a research organization funded by the insurance industry.
The state had a fairly light hurricane season last year, with only Hurricane Idalia rumbling through the less-densely populated western region on Sept. 1.
It caused damages between $3 billion and $5 billion.
Florida legislators are mulling changes that they hope will bring down premiums, including making it harder for policyholders to sue insurance companies as well as forcing insurance companies to provide discounts to homeowners who reinforce their properties with windstorm mitigation improvements.
Thaler said that he recently had to subtract $50,000 from mortgage pre-approval for a veteran seeking to buy a $350,000 home through a VA loan.
“After we factored in the increase in insurance premiums, the buyer had to look for a cheaper home because we had to cap pre-approval at $300,000,” Thaler told The Post.
Those looking for higher-end properties on the water in Florida are seeing “exponential growth in insurance premiums,” Thaler said.
Condo buyers also are “feeling the pinch,” Martirena said.
He said a friend who owns a condo in a small building in the trendy downtown Miami neighborhood of Brickell recently saw her HOA monthly bill double to $1,800 a month.
A Canadian national who was looking to buy a condo in a luxury building in Miami Beach got sticker shock when she was told she would need to pay a monthly HOA fee of $4 per square foot.
The building, which includes units that boast oceanfront views, have condos that are at least 2,000 square feet — which amounts to a monthly HOA bill of at least $8,000.
Martirena told The Post that would-be buyers are “rethinking” options, including renting or buying into a condo-hotel. The hotel rents out the unit when the property is not in use and then splits the revenue with the owner.
A homeowner who was looking to refinance a $5 million property on the Boca Raton intracoastal waterway wasn’t able to renew their policy for find another company to insure them.
“They went almost a year without insurance,” Thaler said, adding: “Mortgage underwriters have become very strict with the requirement for flood insurance, which is part of the reason insurance premiums have increased.”
Seven insurers have been declared insolvent in Florida since early 2022.
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