Legislators have goals for fixing Florida's property insurance market

Legislators have goals for fixing Florida’s property insurance market

Florida’s property insurance market is in free fall. Florida homeowners pay property insurance rates that are three times the national average. Six companies have become insolvent and left the state in the last year. Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurer of last resort, now has more than 1.1 million customers, the highest in a decade. And people who have paid off their mortgages are increasingly “going bare,” choosing not to carry the high-priced insurance and instead shouldering the economic risks themselves. More from the Tampa Bay Times and the Miami Herald.

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» Column: Florida lawmakers seek a holiday miracle during special session on insurance

Renters displaced by Hurricane Ian left with nowhere to go

Thousands of tenants across Southwest Florida were displaced after Hurricane Ian. Advocates say the storm has exacerbated an existing affordable housing crisis and is driving low and middle income families out of the region. “So many homes were destroyed so there’s fewer places available,” said Elizabeth Radi from the Collier County Tenants Union. There also has been a surge in demand from homeowners who lost their homes and disaster relief workers flooding the rental market. [Source: Tampa Bay Times]

Former ‘Iron lady’ of Chavez’s courts now invests in Florida real estate with a steely grip

She was known as the “Iron Lady” in professional circles of the troubled Venezuelan judicial system for the sternness she displayed in enforcing the will of the Caracas Socialist regime, often exhorting great pressure on defense attorneys and fellow judges to ensure that court decisions closely followed the government’s wishes, lawyers who dealt with her said. Carmen Porras is among many Venezuelan government officials and members of the military who, after helping build Venezuela’s so-called Bolivarian Revolution, ended up moving, investing, or opening businesses in Florida. [Source: Miami Herald]

More sellers are taking their homes off the market as housing slows

Sellers are increasingly taking their homes off the market, likely unsatisfied that they’re not getting the prices they want amid a real-estate slowdown. Almost 2% of homes were delisted on average in South Florida each week in the three-month period ending Nov. 27, according to data from RedFin. In Miami, about 1.9% of homes on average were delisted in the time period ending Nov. 27, while in Fort Lauderdale, 1.6% of homes were delisted each week. In West Palm Beach, about 1.7% of homes were taken off the market each week. [Source: South Florida Sun-Sentinel]

Mobile home owners struggle to find insurance in Florida’s ‘dysfunctional’ market

There are about 822,000 manufactured and mobile homes in Florida today, according to the Census Bureau, nearly 10% of the total supply of homes. In 2018, only 260,127 manufactured homes were insured, according to information from the Office of Insurance Regulation. The agency did not return a request for updated information. Only 1,732 manufactured and mobile homes in Florida carry flood insurance, according to the federal Office of Emergency Management. [Source: Orlando Sentinel]

ALSO TRENDING:

› United Property & Casualty Insurance ending business in Florida [WFLA]
Florida’s property insurance crisis just claimed another company. In just a few months, United Property & Casualty Insurance plans to end business in the Sunshine State. The company is responsible for more than 140,000 insurance policies in Florida, according to numbers from November. So, what’s in store for those homeowners now?

› Race is on to scoop up build-to-rent sites in Orlando [Orlando Business Journal]
Build-to-rent seems to be having a moment. It's certainly happening nationally, with the National Association of Home Builders reporting that construction of single-family build-to-rent surged in the second quarter of 2022 — with its 21,000 construction starts during the quarter a 91% increase year-over-year. It's happening locally, too, as developers and real estate professionals are on the hunt for sites in metro Orlando.

› ‘The tipping point’: Four Miami-Dade professionals describe housing squeeze [Miami Herald]
Healthcare, food service, hospitality and many other public- and private-sector service workers struggle to live in Miami-Dade County’s overpriced housing market. College-educated and early-to-mid-career professionals also find it difficult to keep up with the soaring rents and home prices. The Miami Herald recently posted an online query to readers, asking them to tell us how they’ve managed to make ends meet in one of the nation’s hottest housing markets. Fourteen people responded and voluntarily shared their personal financial plight.

› Big firms scouting Florida want bigger office space, Dolphins owner and developer Stephen Ross says [South Florida Sun-Sentinel]
Stephen M. Ross, the billionaire developer and Miami Dolphins owner, is betting that big out-of-state companies want more, not less, office space in South Florida despite lofty inflation and the threat of an economic recession in 2023. “You can feel the slowdown because the money is not there and rates are higher,” Ross told a “Florida Summit” sponsored by the Urban Land Institute in Miami on Wednesday. “Certain cities are slowing down faster. You will feel it here but it won’t be as great as it will be in the Northeast. The so-called blue states will grow slower than the red states for a lot of different reasons. If you are in Florida, it’s a good place to be at this point.”

Tags: Real Estate eNews

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