This week, a 55+ residential community (known as Century VillageThe city of Pembroke Pines, Fla., came together to protest increases in monthly housing costs due to soaring insurance costs as several insurers fled the state.
Homeowners received an email from Century Village saying they would have to pay an extra $100 to $200 per month due to “insurance premium spikes” and added potential special assessments for some units, according to South Florida local television news outlet NBC6 first reported the incident. Television footage showed several residents huddled together, visibly distraught and yelling (although it was unclear exactly what they were talking about). However, the protests appeared to escalate and the police were called. Still, one resident told NBC6’s Laura Rodriguez that the rising costs forced him to sell his home.
“Right now we’re just over $700 a month in HOA fees, and they’re going to raise it to $1,000 a month,” the resident told reporters. “We have no choice but to sell. In fact, I That’s why I put my house up for sale.”
Residents of Century Village Pembroke Pines, a community over the age of 55, said they would be paying $100 to $200 more because of “surging premiums.”
“Our monthly HOA fee was over $700 and they raised it to 1ka per month. We had no choice but to sell.”https://t.co/UNGL3PR4XX
— Thomas Kennedy (@tomaskenn) August 17, 2023
Century Village did not immediately respond wealth Request for comment.
Florida’s real estate market has seen home prices rise significantly during the pandemic and, for the most part, are still rising.Plus mortgage rates have more than doubled, with the average 30-year fixed rate recently played Hitting a 20-year high, affordability has deteriorated. But now, a new force is putting pressure on housing affordability: rising insurance costs.
Homeowners in Florida pay some of the highest insurance premiums in the country, averaging $6,000 a year, said Mark Friedlander, director of corporate communications for the Florida Insurance Information Institute. By comparison, the US average is $1,700 per year.More recently, some home insurers have either dropped out of the state, like Farmers Insurance, or opted to reduce renewals, like AAA — making it harder for homeowners to find coverage, or even afford it, because wealth previously reported.
“In the past 18 months alone, 15 companies have ceased doing business in Florida. Three of those companies have withdrawn voluntarily—Farmers is the most recent—and seven have been declared bankrupt,” Friedlander said recently. explained to us. wealth, Before that, AAA said it would reduce its operations in Florida, rather than exiting entirely, as Farmers Insurance announced plans to do.
Several factors are behind the state’s insurance exodus, including claims fraud, an increase in claims following recent hurricanes and increases in reinsurance rates. All of this, in essence, increases costs for insurers, which in turn increases costs for policyholders. However, we are seeing some insurers choose to leave the state altogether, which only makes it harder for homeowners to find coverage and makes it more expensive.
Insurance issues are already having an impact on Florida’s real estate market, with a recent survey of homebuilders showing buyer concerns about insurance availability and affordability have slowed sales somewhat, and things could get worse .
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