Property insurance rates unsustainable for seniors on fixed incomes | Opinion
While I’ve been appreciative of the legislature and the governor’s recent attempts to stabilize the property insurance industry in Florida, the simple fact remains that most seniors on fixed incomes are finding the rates unsustainable.
Property insurance rates in Florida are widely reported to be two and three times higher than the national average. However, in one North Florida metropolitan area, the rates are even higher. Pensacola zip codes have the highest property insurance rates in the state.
Tallahassee is my hometown and has been for decades. But the Pensacola area is where I was raised from a child to adulthood. My mother still lives in a small bayside community that sits between Pensacola and Pensacola Beach.
The house my mother lives in is the house we were raised in. Built in the 1950’s, the house is well constructed of pine tongue and groove paneling on the roof and walls; common for that era but too expensive to do today. It has withstood decades of storms without sustaining any serious damage, and only once experienced flooding that covered the yard, but never entered the house, and receded quickly.
After my father passed away from cancer two years ago, my mom has stayed alone in that house living on a fixed income. Because of increased inflationary pricing for everything from groceries to electricity, mom has struggled to keep within a monthly budget. But she’s done everything right; watching her spending, living within her means, paying the taxes and insurance. Remarkable for someone in her 80’s.
Until now, that is. Mom’s property insurance has been steadily rising over the decades, and last year, rose to $4,000 annually. When my father was living, they were able to keep the same property insurer for many years, but after several years of storms, their carrier left the state (as did many others) and they were forced in an unstable market. Just last week, mom received a bill for this year with a quoted annual premium of $6,200 — a $2,200 increase over last year.
Since mom’s fixed income has not increased, she has now had to start dipping more frequently into the small retirement nest egg she and dad managed to save over their hard-working years together. And at $6,200, the property insurance bill is now threatening to bankrupt her in a very few short years. At this rate, her property insurance has become the most expensive monthly bill she now has — more expensive than her medical bills, her utility bills, her food bills, her gas bills and her prescription bills. And over time, this will simply become unsustainable for her to pay.
Something will have to be done; or for the first time in mom’s decades of living in her own home, it will be uninsured and unprotected in the event of fire, storm damage or another catastrophe. The price of living in paradise, and in the place she’s called home her entire life, just became too high.
I imagine it’s no different for thousands of other seniors living in Florida right now.
Philip Wilcox is a retired state of Florida employee who lives in Tallahassee.
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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Property insurance rates unsustainable for seniors on fixed incomes | Opinion
