Florida woman details home insurance woes on Capitol Hill

WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Capitol Hill, a Florida woman speaks out about high home insurance costs. The Senate Budget Committee held a hearing Wednesday called “Riskier Business: How Climate is Already Challenging Insurance Markets.”

Deborah Wood told the committee she moved to South Florida in 1979, but sold her home last year largely because of the high cost to insure it. 

“In 2017, we paid $3,700 per year for insurance, and in subsequent years the rates increased significantly, so that our proposed renewal for 2023 was more than $8,000,” she said. 

Wood said she and her husband who are retired, sought to buy a home in Tallahassee near their daughter, but found the rates to be expensive there too, and have not decided on their “next step.”

“Flash forward to 2024. We have reluctantly made the decision that we will not be buying a home in Florida. We’ve learned there’s no escaping the insurance problems and weather disasters are becoming more and more prevalent, even in previously safe areas like Tallahassee,” Wood said. 

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat, noted rates in Florida far exceed the national average.

“Ten percent of our nation’s homeowners live in Florida. Florida homeowners pay on average over $6,000 for insurance, the highest in the country. Indeed, more than three times the national average, which is $1,700. Florida’s average premium has doubled between 2020 and 2023,” Whitehouse said. 

While Democrats blamed the crisis largely on climate change, Republicans and an economist with a conservative think tank blamed Democratic policies and inflation for the higher insurance rates felt nationally. 

“This hearing ought to be called ‘Riskier Business: How Massive Deficit Spending, which Caused Inflation is Challenging the Insurance Markets,’” said Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin. 

“Your focus should be on reducing the government spending that created the inflation, which is responsible for most of the increase in insurance premiums over the last several years,” Heritage Foundation Research Fellow E.J. Antoni told the committee.