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By Giulia Carbonaro
Senior Reporter
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Florida voters will soon have a chance to decide whether they want to drastically cut property tax bills for most homeowners in the state, even as a new poll reveals that a majority of residents is much more concerned about rising property insurance premiums than property taxes.
The Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) at the University of North Florida surveyed 1,511 homeowners with property insurance living in Florida between July 16 and July 31, asking them which one of the two housing-related issues they were more concerned about.
A majority of 63 percent said insurance was their biggest concern, while 36 percent said they were more worried about property taxes. Only one percent said they did not know the answer. The result was the same no matter which party respondents voted for; 70 percent of Democrats and 62 percent of no-party or other voters said they were more concerned about insurance, compared with 57 percent of Republicans.
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Property taxes, on the other hand, were the bigger worry for 30 percent of Democrats, 36 percent of no-party or other voters and 42 percent of Republicans.
These results contradict Florida lawmakers’ claims that the state’s property insurance crisis has been somehow solved over the past few years, and shows that the issue set to take center stage in November, property taxes, is not as close to voters’ heart as the political debate would suggest.
How High Are Home Insurance Premiums in Florida?
The average home insurance premium in the Sunshine State is currently $8,471 per year for a policy with $300,000 in dwelling coverage, $300,000 in liability, a $1,000 deductible and a 2 percent hurricane deductible, Insurance.com reported.
It is the highest average premium in the nation, with the state paying the second-highest, Nebraska, trailing Florida with a statewide average of $5,513.
Estimates of how much Florida homeowners pay for coverage vary by source, but there is broad agreement that the state has consistently had the highest premiums in the nation.
Last year, according to Insurify, the average home insurance cost for Florida homeowners was $8,292 per year, nearly triple the national average home insurance rate of $2,808 per year for a policy with $300,000 in dwelling coverage.
Partially, this has to be expected. As a coastal state, Florida has long been vulnerable to hurricanes and storms, as well as devastating flooding, pushing up premiums for policyholders. But extreme weather events have been made more frequent and more severe by climate change in recent years, increasing risk for carriers to the point where many cut coverage in Florida’s most vulnerable area or withdrew from the state entirely when unable to price their risk correctly.
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This, combined with excessive litigation and widespread fraud, contributed to the skyrocketing of property insurance premiums in the state since the pandemic. Between 2021 and 2025, Florida homeowners’ insurance premiums rose 75 percent, nearly double the national average, according to a report from national nonprofit group the Coalition for an Insurable Future.
The state launched a sweeping tort reform in 2022 that has partially stabilized the market and drawn some insurers back.
“Florida’s insurance market has shown vast improvement since legislative reform addressed the factors causing the state’s man-made risk crisis: legal system abuse and assignment of benefits claim fraud. New lawsuit filings have declined 50% since 2020, reducing legal defense expenses for insurers. This has led to statewide rate reductions. During the first half of 2026, average home insurance premiums decreased in 51 of 67 Florida counties,” Mark Friedlander of the Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) told Newsweek.
“Additionally, state-backed Citizens Property Insurance Corp. has reduced its risk exposure by more than 1 million customers via depopulation as a stabilized private market has taken on this risk. Citizens has reached a historic low of less than 300,000 active policies, with market share declining from 15 percent to 2 percent. More than 20 new insurers have entered Florida, and existing national and regional insurers are growing their market share across the state,” Friedlander added.
But premiums have continued to increase in the state, even though at a slower pace than before. Insurify predicts a 2 percent increase from 2025 by the end of 2026.
How High Are Property Taxes?
Property taxes rose all across the country since the pandemic, following the rise in home values triggered by the home-buying frenzy unleashed between 2020 and 2022 by historically low borrowing costs.
In the Sunshine State, this increase in property taxes piled up on top of existing pressure caused by rising home insurance premiums and homeowner association (HOA) fees, making it increasingly difficult for many residents, especially seniors on fixed income, to hold on to their homes.
Republican lawmakers in the state, spearheaded by Governor Ron DeSantis, rallied around the issue over the past year, ultimately coming up with a proposal to drastically reduce property taxes for longtime Florida homeowners.
But unlike the state’s home insurance premiums, Florida’s property taxes are far from the highest in the country. Florida currently has the 27th-highest effective tax rate (as of 2024) in the nation, according to Rocket Mortgage, at 0.78 percent, with homeowners in the state paying a property tax of $ 3,145 for a median home based on new sale price of $403,200.
By comparison, New Jersey and Illinois, the leading property tax states, had an effective rate of 1.88 percent each, and homeowners paid an average property tax of $7,580.
What Will Florida Voters Decide in November?
Floridians will vote on Amendment 3 in November, a proposed constitutional amendment that would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
Under Florida law, a constitutional amendment needs to be approved by 60 percent of voters. According to the latest poll, conducted among 913 likely Florida voters between September 15-17 by StPetePolls.org for Florida Politics, only 45 percent of voters support the proposal.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Matthew Robinson and Cristina Diciu.
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