Home Insurance – Courtesy: Shutterstock – Image by Alexander Raths
In 2022, Hurricane Ian destroyed Dayna and Matt Fancher’s Fort Myers Beach, Florida, home.
The couple is still paying their home insurance coverage, which is now twice as expensive, one month into this year’s hurricane season, all the while battling the company in court over their claim.
The Fanchers, who have been in their Fort Myers Beach home for nearly thirty years, said that adjusters consistently denied their hurricane damage claims and that their home insurance company only paid them a third of the cost of rebuilding their house. The Fanchers say that in order to be able to return to their house, they ultimately took out construction loans.
Matt Fancher stated, “We’re paying twice as much, we have the same coverage that we had, and we didn’t get the assistance that we needed.”
The insurance crisis in hurricane-prone Florida is connected to a number of situations, including the Fanchers’. As the number of catastrophic claims rises and Floridians are subject to fewer insurance options and more scrutiny throughout the underwriting process, rates are already extremely high and are predicted to rise further.
Four significant storms have hit Florida since 2021: Ian, Helene, Idalia, and Milton. As a result, premiums have increased by about 30 percent throughout the state. Florida is currently the most costly state in the US to get homeowners insurance, with premiums averaging about $10,000 annually.
According to statistics gathered by First Street Foundation, a climate risk modeling business, annual premiums in Fort Myers Beach, a small community on narrow Estero Island outside Fort Myers, increased from roughly $9,000 to nearly $14,000 between 2019 and 2024.
Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation reports that more than half a million residential catastrophe claims were made by Floridians following Hurricane Ian. Major national insurers like Farmers announced they would withdraw or stop offering coverage in the state due to increased hurricane risk, while several domestic Florida property insurers were declared insolvent in response to Hurricane Ian’s estimated $50 billion to $65 billion in insurance losses.
According to Mark Friedlander, a spokesman for the Insurance Information Institute, a trade group for insurers, some legislative changes have contributed to the stabilization of the insurance market in Florida. He claimed that more than a dozen new insurers had joined the market in 2024 and that the state had the lowest average statewide price hikes for home insurance in the nation.
However, as climate change brought on by humans heats the atmosphere and increases sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, the probability of hurricanes in Florida is increasing. Florida is more susceptible to storm damage as a result of hotter weather that traps rainfall and intensifies storms, making them wetter and stronger. Extreme rainfall of Hurricane Helene increased by 10 percent due to moisture trapped in the warmer atmosphere, reaching 26.95 inches in certain areas of Florida.
As communities like Fort Myers Beach struggle with recurrent damage and expensive recoveries, Jeremy Porter, a climate risk specialist at First Street Foundation, argues that growing insurance premiums are a reminder of the profound effects of climate change in west Florida.
“We haven’t adequately measured climate risk in our risk modeling during the past few decades. We’re currently playing catch-up, which is quickly raising insurance prices, and individuals are feeling the impact on their household budgets,” Porter stated.
Because there aren’t many options for home insurance, more and more Floridians are purchasing coverage from Citizens Insurance Property Corp., the state-backed, non-profit insurance company in Florida. Porter claims that this quick shift has also increased insurance premiums.
According to Porter, the Tampa metro area’s storm risk might result in a 213 percent increase in home insurance rates by 2055. Other regions of the nation are also seeing disruptions in the insurance markets due to climate hazards. For instance, inhabitants of Sacramento, California, may see a 137 percent rise in the risk of wildfire.
According to Porter, the availability and cost of home insurance may also be impacted by Florida’s falling home values. Insurers may view a drop in property prices in hurricane-prone or other extreme weather-prone areas as an indication of increasing market or physical risk, which could result in heightened scrutiny during the underwriting process and possible premium increases.
Fort Myers Beach property values are down around $200,000 from their pre-Ian values, according to Zillow statistics, and 86% of transactions over the past year have been below list price, which is a general indication that sellers are having trouble selling their homes.
Before Hurricane Ian, Sanibel Island, a famous beach vacation destination in Lee County, had an average house value of about $1.3 million. According to Zillow, that value is $868,000 now, and 93 percent of all properties are sold for less than their advertised price.
Following spending so much money on restoration following Hurricane Ian, Joanne Klempner, who has been a part-time resident of Fort Myers Beach since 2016, believes selling her house is not a financially feasible choice. Klempner said she is concerned about the impact of climate change on her community and has little option but to remain in Fort Myers Beach.
“At this stage, we must be committed to the long term. “The bigger question, in my opinion, is whether people want to keep investing in Fort Myers Beach,” Klempner stated. “The danger seems worth it to live in paradise when there aren’t any hurricanes for thirty years. It gets dubious when three powerful hurricanes occur in a span of 18 months.
Fort Myers Beach is still a terrific area to live and visit, according to Jacki Liszak, president and CEO of the Fort Myers Beach Chamber of Commerce. The community is investing in resilient construction and constructing residences that are well above the flood line.
According to Liszak, “the houses have to be built high and strong.” “I believe that will be really beneficial. People are beginning to arrive, and I anticipate that they will keep coming. People adore this way of life. It’s a stunning region of the world.”
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Melissa’s career in writing started more than 20 years ago. Today, she lives in South Florida with her husband and two boys.
