ORLANDO, Fla. – Most Florida homeowners are more concerned about property insurance than property taxes, according to a new poll from the Public Opinion Research Lab (PORL) at the University of North Florida, conducted in partnership with the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel.
The survey of 1,511 Florida homeowners found 63% said they are more concerned about insurance costs, while 36% indicated greater concern about property taxes. The gap held across party lines: while Republicans expressed higher concern over property taxes than Democrats or independents, a majority of every partisan group still ranked insurance as the greater worry.
“This is remarkable given the amount of attention that has been spent this year discussing property tax reform, especially with Amendment 3 on the ballot,” said Dr. Sean Freeder, PORL Faculty Director and Associate Professor of Political Science at UNF. “Even in a rhetorical environment that would otherwise prime Floridians to think heavily about property tax, nearly two in three still said property insurance was the greater concern. This sentiment was essentially uniform across partisanship and region of the state.”
A Market in Turmoil
The instability behind those numbers is striking. Fifty-four percent of respondents said they have switched primary insurers at least once in the past five years, and 33% said they have done so twice or more. Of those who changed insurers, 47% said they were dropped — either by a private insurer (12%), Citizens (25%), or because their previous insurer stopped operating in Florida altogether (10%). Across the full sample, 25% of respondents said they were dropped from their coverage at least once in the past five years.
“About a third of homeowners in our sample had to change at least twice over the last five years,” Freeder said. “Of those who did change at least once, nearly half had to do so because they were simply dropped by their insurer. This speaks to a persistent high degree of instability in Florida’s property insurance market.”
Sixty-one percent of respondents said their current insurer operates primarily or solely in Florida. That figure was highest among homeowners with older properties and those in coastal counties.
“The lack of availability of major national insurers in the Florida market is stunning, and a key demonstration of the problem Florida homeowners face,” Freeder said.
Premiums Climbing, Claims Denied
Among the 261 respondents who filed an insurance claim in the past five years, 45% said their claim was initially denied. Separately, 47% of all respondents said their annual premium increased by at least 50% over the past five years. Nineteen percent said their premium jumped by that amount in just the past year alone — compared to 2% nationwide, according to a 2024 national Consumer Reports survey.
Little Faith in Reform
Florida lawmakers have pushed a series of property insurance market reforms in recent years, but most homeowners aren’t buying it. When asked about the state of the market, 55% of respondents said they see no signs the homeowners insurance market is improving. Another 26% said they think it is getting worse. Only 18% believe the market is improving and rates are likely to come down.
Pessimism ran deepest among homeowners whose premiums have doubled or more in five years, with 41% of that group saying the market is getting worse.
When asked who has benefited most from insurance reforms, 69% of respondents said the insurance industry. Just 16% said consumers have benefited, and 9% pointed to trial lawyers. Even among registered Republicans, 57% said insurance companies are the top beneficiaries — though Republicans were more likely than Democrats or independents (28%) to say consumers have also benefited.
“Florida homeowners are overwhelmingly negative in their assessment of not just the property insurance market, but also government efforts to overhaul it,” Freeder said. “For Republicans to break from these assumptions, and from their own party’s direct messaging, dissatisfaction with that aspect of policy must be very high, and very salient.”
A Growing Voter Issue
Concern about housing costs has surged among Florida voters in recent years. Just 2% of Florida voters identified housing costs as the most important problem facing Florida in spring 2022. By fall 2023, that figure jumped to 26%. Since early 2025, property insurance has been consistently listed among voters’ top concerns, alongside housing costs and property taxes.
About the Poll
The survey was conducted online between July 16 and July 31, 2026, using the Qualtrics platform. The final sample included 1,511 Florida homeowners with active property insurance policies. The overall margin of error is +/-3.18 percentage points. The study was commissioned by the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel.