“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.”
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Floridians will soon vote on a sweeping property tax amendment, but a new poll suggests insured homeowners are more worried about another housing expense: property insurance.
A University of North Florida Public Opinion Research Lab poll found that 63% of Florida homeowners with property insurance are more concerned about insurance costs, compared with 36% who are more concerned about property taxes.
That sentiment is shared across party lines, though Republicans are more concerned about taxes than other voters. Seventy percent of Democrats and 62% of no-party or other voters picked insurance, compared with 57% of Republicans. Property taxes were the bigger concern for 30% of Democrats, 36% of NPA voters and 42% of Republicans.
The age of respondents’ homes and the amount of time they’ve lived there have a significant impact on what they view as the bigger issue. Among those whose homes are 5 years old or less, a slim 50-47% majority say they are more worried about property taxes than insurance.
The percentage who cite property insurance as the bigger concern steadily increases with the age of their home, with 70% of those with homes 40 years or older choosing insurance. Similarly, 48% of those who’ve lived in their home for less than five years say property taxes are their primary concern, while 70% of respondents who have lived in their home for 20 years or more pick property insurance.
The findings come as Amendment 3 dominates discussion of housing costs ahead of November. The proposed constitutional amendment would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028.
A recent St. Pete Polls survey for Florida Politics put support at 45%, short of the 60% required for passage.
“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,” PORL Faculty Director Sean Freeder said.
The poll offers some reasons why that’s the case.
Among homeowners who have lived in their residence for at least five years, 47% said their insurance premium had risen at least 50% during that period, including 28% who said it had roughly doubled or more.
And 19% of all respondents said their premium had risen at least 50% in just the past year, compared with just 2% of homeowners nationally, according to a 2024 Consumer Reports national survey cited by UNF PORL.
The poll also finds that many homeowners have switched insurers recently. Fifty-four percent said they had changed insurers at least once in the past five years, while one-third had switched at least twice.
Despite state lawmakers’ property insurance changes in 2022 and 2023, just 16% believe those reforms primarily benefited consumers, while 69% say the insurance industry benefited the most. Even among Republicans, just 28% say the Legislature’s reforms benefited consumers, compared with 57% who think it mostly benefited insurers.
Only 18% of respondents believe the market is improving and rates are likely to fall, with 55% seeing no signs of improvement and 26% saying conditions are getting worse.
GOP respondents were more than twice as likely as Democrats and NPA respondents to say they think the market is improving — 26% compared with 11% and 13%, respectively — but the lack of optimism cuts across party lines, with 55% of Republicans, 54% of Democrats and 56% of NPA voters saying they see no signs of improvement.
Sixty-one percent of respondents report having a Florida-based insurer, with 71% of South Florida respondents reporting the same.
PORL conducted the online survey July 16-31 for the Orlando Sentinel and South Florida Sun Sentinel. It included 1,511 Florida homeowners with property insurance and has a margin of error of 3.18 percentage points.
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