Why Florida is the origin story of the homeowners insurance crisis

Why Florida is the origin story of the homeowners insurance crisis

Article Courtesy of Florida Matters -- WUSF

By Matthew Peddie, Gracyn Doctor

Published November 29, 2024

Florida already had an affordable housing and insurance crisis. Then came the 2024 hurricane season. WUSF’s Jessica Meszaros explains how climate change impacts insurance.

Getting onto the property ladder is tough these days, and renting is a challenge too, with affordable houses in short supply and lots of competition.

But if you do own a home in the Tampa Bay region, you might be facing another challenge: getting insurance.

WUSF’s Jessica Meszaros has been reporting on what the homeowner’s insurance crisis looks and feels like in Tampa Bay, and her reporting is featured on WWNO’s "Sea Change" podcast.

Meszaros’ podcast "The Stormy Insurance Crisis in the Sunshine State" dropped back in August, before Hurricanes Debby, Helene and Milton. Those back-to-back storms brought the insurance crisis into focus, as the region recovers.

Meszaros joins "Florida Matters" to tell why Florida is the “origin story” of the collapsing home insurance market, and how sketchy companies and climate change are fueling the crisis.

“I think it added a sense of urgency, like this is not a theory, this is happening right now,” said Meszaros.

Amy Beer, 62, with her dog Henry. She got a new metal roof installed after her home insurance company threatened to drop her if she didn't replace it.

She said Hurricane Helene showed how Florida is “the canary in the coalmine.”

“What we know now about hurricanes is that climate change is making them wetter, so they're dropping a lot more rain, and we saw that with Helene and the devastation that, potentially, these storms can cause throughout the country," Meszaros said. "And so Florida has been dealing with this for a really long time, and and now we're seeing this is getting worse and it's impacting more parts of the country.”

Meszaros said she wanted to show how climate change is affecting people who live in the greater Tampa Bay region.

“Whether or not they realize it, they're climate change victims, and so they're dealing with the immediate crisis of, oh my gosh, I got this letter," Meszaros said. "I got this knock at the door, my home insurance is potentially at risk, and what does that mean? And so I wanted to zoom out and tell this story so that we can explain, like, what you're going through is a climate change issue, whether or not they realize it.”

Meszaros said focusing on how people’s day to day lives are affected is just as important as reporting on big policy decisions around climate change.

“Who's going to be able to get to continue to live on the coast," Meszaros said, "if we get stronger and stronger storms back to back, as we have seen in the past few months, who's going to be able to afford to live here if insurance rates keep going up, if the insurance companies just up and leave?”