More than 824,000 Florida homeowners get insurance rate cuts this month as Citizens shrinks to 216,577 policies

More than 824,300 Florida homeowners are getting lower rates on new policies and renewals that take effect this month, with cuts as deep as 12.1%, Insurance Commissioner Mike Yaworsky and Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia announced Thursday, Oct. 29. The Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) said rate requests still pending would extend decreases to roughly 450,000 more Floridians in November, December and January.

The announcement lands as the state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp., once the largest home insurer in Florida, keeps shrinking. Citizens reported 216,577 policies in force on Oct. 23, down from 254,836 at the end of September and a fraction of the roughly 1.41 million it carried in the fall of 2023.

Which insurers are cutting rates

Nine approved filings from eight companies account for the October decreases, according to the OIR chart published with the announcement and reported by WKMG News 6:

Universal Property & Casualty dominates the list. Its 5% average cut reaches about 512,000 customers, more than three of every five policyholders covered by the October decreases, and spans standard homeowners (HO3), renters (HO4), condominium unit owners (HO6) and modified-coverage (HO8) forms. Kin's 3.4% reduction covers nearly 100,000 more.

The deepest cuts are concentrated among condo owners and smaller books of business. Cypress Property & Casualty's 12.1% decrease, the largest on the chart, applies to about 64,300 homeowners and condo unit owners. Castle Key Indemnity, an Allstate-affiliated carrier, cut its condo unit owners' rates by 12% for 51,580 customers and by 10.3% for another 4,700. Security First's 7.3% reduction applies to about 17,300 condo unit policies. At the other end, Olympus Insurance's change, effective Oct. 31, amounts to a tenth of a percent for 66,800 customers.

The numbers are average rate changes across each company's book. An individual homeowner's renewal can move more or less than the average depending on coverage limits, deductibles, the age and features of the home and any change in its insured value.

What state officials said

Yaworsky said in the announcement that he was "thrilled to highlight more rate decreases for Florida homeowners." He said OIR has been "pushing companies for larger decreases" when its actuaries conclude the companies can afford them, and signaled more announcements to come. "We are not taking the foot off the gas," Yaworsky said, adding that the office plans to announce more rate decreases over the next two months and into the new year.

Ingoglia, who as chief financial officer oversees the state's Department of Financial Services, tied the cuts to the Legislature's changes to insurance litigation. In the joint release he called the decreases "proof positive of the positive changes in Florida's insurance market since our historic tort reforms."

The release also said 48 companies have filed for rate decreases since January 2024, and 53 more have requested no change or a 0% increase.

Premiums falling in most counties

The October cuts follow OIR's July 2026 Property Insurance Stability Report, which compared average premiums for homeowners policies with wind coverage in January and July of this year. Averages fell in 51 of Florida's 67 counties, though the declines were modest in many places. As of March 31, average premiums for a traditional homeowners policy with wind coverage ranged from $2,105 in Sumter County to $7,863 in Monroe County.

WPTV in West Palm Beach reported how the report's figures played out on the Treasure Coast and in Palm Beach County, where every county in its viewing area saw a decline:

Those declines worked out to between about $24 and $119 a year on the average policy, and some homeowners said their own bills had not followed the trend. "It has been going up, never went down," Palm Beach County resident Barry Garcia told WPTV. Palm Beach County Commissioner Gregg Weiss told the station, "One of the big ticket items of living here is the cost of homeowners insurance."

Citizens keeps shrinking

Citizens' own numbers show how far the insurer of last resort has retreated. Its monthly policies-in-force data peaked at 1,407,805 on Sept. 30, 2023. The count stood near 336,000 in early March 2026, fell to 254,836 on Sept. 30, 2026, and dropped by another 38,259 policies, to 216,577, in the first three weeks of October. That leaves Citizens about 85% smaller than at its peak.

Citizens' own customers are also paying less. In March, OIR approved average reductions of 8.8% for Citizens' homeowners multiperil policies and 5.5% for its wind-only policies, with every Citizens personal lines policyholder getting a cut of at least 2%. The new rates applied to new policies starting July 1, 2026, and to existing policies at renewal.

"The Florida property insurance market is again healthy and vibrant," Citizens President and CEO Tim Cerio said when the rates were announced. "Most Floridians now have many options as financially sound private insurers compete for their business." Cerio added, "Citizens, as it always has, will be there for those policyholders unable to secure coverage in the private market." He also urged stakeholders to keep up efforts to strengthen the market and reduce the risk of assessments after a major storm, according to the company.

Why rates are falling

State regulators and Citizens both credit the Legislature's 2022 and 2023 overhaul of insurance litigation, which ended the one-way attorney fees that regulators say encouraged lawsuits against insurers. OIR's July report pointed to reduced litigation and the arrival of new competitors in the market as the main reasons premiums have eased for many companies.

The relief is uneven. Average premiums in South Florida and the Keys remain the highest in the state, and a few percentage points off a $6,000 policy still leaves a large bill. The 16 counties that did not see average premiums fall in the July report are a reminder that the market has not turned everywhere at once.

What's next

OIR says it has multiple rate requests pending that would take effect in November, December and January and bring decreases to about 450,000 more Floridians. The office has not yet released a company-by-company list for those filings. Yaworsky said more announcements are planned in the next two months.

Homeowners whose policies renew in the coming months can compare the premium on their renewal notice with last year's bill and ask their agent whether a filed decrease applies to their coverage form. OIR publishes rate filing information and market data on its website at floir.gov.

The 2026 Atlantic hurricane season ends Nov. 30. Storm losses and the cost of reinsurance, which insurers buy to cover their own catastrophe risk, are among the factors regulators weigh in each new rate filing.