TALLAHASSEE — Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said Wednesday work on homeowners insurance in the state may not be over.

“We’re going to continue to lean forward with solutions that help empower the consumer to make those investments to bring insurance down,” he said from his office in the state capital. "This is what I tell people, every single year we got to work on this problem. It’s not a one and done," he said. State leaders had been banking on reforms aimed at curbing fraudulent lawsuits in late 2022 would bring rate relief sometime this year. But now Patronis said other factors are hampering the relief. "The measures that took place in 2022 are creating the environment that makes carriers want to do business in Florida," Patronis said.

Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis.

"But there is still the cost of business, of inflation that has made home ownership and construction costs more and because interest rates are higher, those insurance companies are not jumping into Florida market."

Patronis said four new insurance companies are entering the Florida market this year and there are “others in the pipeline."

And he said other states are now beginning to feel the pain of rising insurance rates that Florida experienced over the last year.

"We were the canary in the coal mine. We made the tough decisions that now they will have to make," Patronis said.

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