Insurance is nuts here in FL, both home and auto.
There are a limited number of companies who write policies down here for homeowners insurance, so having the same company for home and auto to get the bundled discount is extremely rare. USAA won't write homeowners policies here. Their auto rates which they quote me me are nuts (double every other quote I get) so even if they would write me a homeowners policy, I doubt I'd use them.
My homeowners premium was $2800 when I bought my house in 2012. I didn't even shop. I got referred by a friend to an agent and purchased a policy because I had to get it done right away for the mortgage. A couple years later, they hit me with a big increase to $3600. So I shopped. At that point, I found the original agent put together a policy with a bunch of fluff and add-on coverage that wasn't really applicable.
The new agent was able to write me a policy with the same company that had all of the same meat and potatoes coverage (replacement value of house, contents, pool cage, etc). New policy was $2200. For several years it stayed at or around that amount and actually dipped down as low as $1900.
Then came the hurricanes. We had Hurricane Irma roll through in 2017. This brought about policy spikes for pretty much everyone. Policy went up to $3000 in 2018. Then it crept up a couple hundred here and there. Then It went up to $4100 after Ian. A bunch of companies pulled out of FL after that one. One of the guys who works for me had his roof get peeled off and damage to his cars from the roofing materials blowing off the house. The company paid it all out and then they cancelled him. He was able to easily find another company with a brand new roof on his house. I have a 2006 roof. Every time I looked into another company, they tell me to replace my roof first. There's nothing wrong with it.
The number of companies pulling out of FL created an insurance crisis. My premium went from $4100 to $8200 in one year. My alternatives were to just pay it, or drop $30K on a roof so I can switch to another company for lower premiums. I just had to suck it up. Note, I have never filed any sort of homeowners insurance claim.
However, FL passed some insurance reform in the legislature. This brought in more companies who are writing homeowners policies down here along with other reforms. My 2025 premium is going down $2200 to $6000. I'll take it.
To illustrate the impact of these premiums, lets talk about my mortgage nut every month. In 2012 when I bought the place, my total mortgage payment including escrow for insurance/taxes was $1100. I was paying $300 in extra principal every month. Rates came down so in 2016 I refinanced the 30-year a 15-year which brought my payment to $1400. I paid another $100 in extra principal every month. The insurance increases brought my payment up to $1800 then to my current $2500 a month. My statement should be here in the next week or two that will tell me my new payment with the $2K drop in the homeowners premium.
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