Citizens Rates Are Dropping in Broward and Palm Beach. A Big Flood Insurance Rule Arrives January 1.

All figures in this article come from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, FEMA, the Congressional Research Service, the Florida Legislature and Florida statute. Verified August 10, 2026.

Jump to a section

• Start Here: The Short Version
• What Citizens Actually Is
• Why This Matters Even If You Are Not With Citizens
• Decoding the Policy Codes
• What Regulators Approved
• Broward County
• Palm Beach County
• The Policy Types That Went Up
• Reading the Statewide Percentages
• When You Will See It, and What Notice You Get
• The Flood Insurance Requirement
• One More Flood Insurance Issue to Watch This Fall
• Sources

Start Here: The Short Version

If you have a Citizens policy in Broward or Palm Beach County, your premium is very likely going down at your next renewal. In Broward, 72,935 of the county's 95,192 Citizens policies were approved for a decrease. In Palm Beach, 62,265 of 70,672 were.

Standard homeowners policies got the deepest cuts. Broward's is the largest of any county in the state.

A smaller group is going the other way. Two categories of policy, wind-only dwelling policies and mobile home policies, were approved for increases in both counties.

Separately, and unrelated to the rate cut, Florida law is phasing in a requirement that most Citizens customers with wind coverage maintain qualifying flood insurance in addition to their Citizens coverage. It has been arriving in stages since 2024 based on how much your home is insured for. On January 1, 2027, the last stage applies it to everyone still covered by the rule, regardless of home value and regardless of whether you are in a flood zone.

And if you are not a Citizens customer at all, there is still a reason this touches you, which is explained below.

The phase-in schedule for Citizens policyholders outside a special flood hazard area. Thresholds are based on Coverage A dwelling value, not market value.

What Citizens Actually Is

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation is not a normal insurance company. The Florida Legislature created it in 2002 as a not-for-profit alternative insurer, and its stated public purpose is to provide insurance to property owners who cannot find coverage in the private insurance market. It is commonly called the insurer of last resort.

That status has practical consequences. You cannot simply choose Citizens because it looks cheaper. Under the state's clearinghouse program, when a Citizens policyholder receives a take-out offer from an authorized private insurer at a premium not more than 20 percent above the Citizens renewal premium for comparable coverage, including surcharges and assessments, that policyholder is no longer eligible for Citizens coverage. Citizens is required to notify policyholders that they have received such an offer and that it makes their risk ineligible.

Citizens has been shrinking. In the March 2026 rate announcement, Citizens President and CEO Tim Cerio said the company's policy count stands at 336,000 policies, down 76 percent from a peak of 1.41 million policies in October 2023.

One more thing worth knowing before the numbers: a Citizens policy does not cover flood. That is why the requirement described later in this article means obtaining flood coverage somewhere else, rather than adding it to the Citizens policy itself.

Why This Matters Even If You Are Not With Citizens

Most homeowners in both counties are insured privately, not through Citizens. There is still a direct connection.

Citizens has the ability to levy assessments. In its own clearinghouse materials, Citizens explains that homeowners who find coverage in the private market face a much lower risk of being assessed than Citizens policyholders if Citizens cannot pay its claims following a hurricane or major catastrophe, and that placing more policies in the private market means all Floridians have a reduced assessment risk because Citizens' exposure is smaller. Citizens notes that in addition to property insurance policies, assessments can be levied on specialty policies including auto, boat and pet insurance.

A Florida House staff analysis describes the same purpose behind the Legislature's take-out rules: strengthening the private market and reducing the risk of additional assessments for all Floridians in the event Citizens is unable to meet its obligations.

Speaking to Citizens' Board of Governors in March 2026, Cerio said it remains critical for stakeholders to continue the efforts of recent years that have strengthened the market and reduced the risk of Citizens assessments on all Florida insurance consumers following a major storm.

In short, Citizens' size is a shared financial exposure. That is why its policy count and its rates are treated as statewide news rather than as one company's business.

Decoding the Policy Codes

Citizens reports its rates by policy form, and the codes are not self-explanatory. Here is what each one in the tables below refers to.

Wind-only policies exist because in some coastal areas a private insurer will write everything except wind. Citizens states that wind-only policies are available in certain areas of the state when all eligibility requirements are met.

What Regulators Approved

Citizens announced on March 4, 2026 that it will reduce rates for its homeowners multiperil policyholders by an average of 8.8 percent in 2026, under a slate of rates approved by state insurance regulators that cuts rates by at least 2 percent for all Citizens personal lines policyholders. Homeowners wind-only policyholders will see an average 5.5 percent reduction.

The Office of Insurance Regulation set the rates. They take effect on July 1 for new policyholders and apply to existing policies when those policies come up for renewal.

Citizens published an approved county-by-county breakdown alongside the announcement. The figures below come directly from that document.

Broward County

Across all personal lines combined, Broward County has 95,192 Citizens policies. Of those, 72,935 were approved for decreases. The countywide approved rate change is a decrease of 8.2 percent, moving the average premium from $3,178 to $2,916.

Broward's 14.1 percent decrease on standard multiperil homeowners policies is the largest county-level HO3 change in Citizens' approved table. Every one of the county's 26,675 HO3 policies was approved for a decrease.

Palm Beach County

Across all personal lines combined, Palm Beach County has 70,672 Citizens policies. Of those, 62,265 were approved for decreases. The countywide approved rate change is a decrease of 8.0 percent, moving the average premium from $3,539 to $3,255.

As in Broward, every Palm Beach County HO3 policy in the table was approved for a decrease.

The Policy Types That Went Up

Two categories in both counties were approved for increases rather than decreases.

Wind-only DW2 policies received the largest approved increase in either county: 12.2 percent in Broward and 13.6 percent in Palm Beach. In Broward, 449 of 1,815 such policies were approved for decreases. In Palm Beach, 141 of 768 were. The approved average premium on this policy type rises from $5,899 to $6,620 in Broward and from $6,033 to $6,855 in Palm Beach.

Mobile home policies in the MHO3 and MDP1 categories were approved for increases of 1.3 percent in Broward and 1.2 percent in Palm Beach.

Statewide, Citizens' approved table shows the DW2 wind-only line rising 6.8 percent and the mobile home multiperil line rising 2.2 percent, while the HO3 line falls 8.7 percent.

Reading the Statewide Percentages

Several figures have circulated in coverage of this rate filing, and they measure different things.

Citizens' press release states an average 8.8 percent reduction for homeowners multiperil policyholders and 5.5 percent for homeowners wind-only.

The 8.7 percent figure that appears in much of the national coverage corresponds to the statewide total on the multiperil HO3 line of Citizens' approved county table, covering 337,025 policies.

The all personal lines combined statewide total in that same table is a decrease of 5.9 percent across 782,189 policies. That figure is smaller because it includes dwelling, mobile home and tenant policies alongside homeowners policies.

An approved rate change is also a statewide or countywide average across a body of policies, not a line item on an individual bill. Citizens' table reports how many policies in each county were approved for decreases and how many were not.

When You Will See It, and What Notice You Get

The approved rates took effect July 1 for new policyholders. For existing policies, they apply at renewal.

Florida Statute 627.4133 requires insurers to give the first-named insured at least 45 days advance written notice of the renewal premium on a personal lines or commercial residential property policy, and 120 days written notice of a nonrenewal, cancellation or termination.

The Flood Insurance Requirement

This is separate from the rate filing and is a matter of state law rather than company policy.

The mandate itself sits in Florida Statute 627.351(6)(aa), the section governing Citizens, which contains the phase-in schedule and ties compliance to a policyholder's eligibility for Citizens coverage. A separate section, Florida Statute 627.715, sets the standards for flood insurance an authorized private insurer may write, and is what determines whether a private flood product qualifies. Citizens' own consumer flood page cites 627.715 when describing the requirement.

Citizens states that most of its new and renewing personal residential policies that include wind coverage must also have and maintain flood insurance coverage by January 1, 2027, under a phased-in approach created by the Florida Legislature in December 2022.

Two terms you need first

A special flood hazard area is FEMA's designation for the higher-risk flood zones. Citizens lists them as A, AO, AH, A1 to A30, AE, A99, V, V1 to V30 and VE.

Coverage A is the dwelling portion of your policy. The state Auditor General notes that Citizens Coverage A is for the replacement cost of the insured dwelling, and that contents coverage, Coverage C, must be purchased separately. Replacement cost is what it would cost to rebuild the structure. It is not the market value of the property and not what you paid for it.

Homes inside a special flood hazard area

Personal residential policies that include wind coverage for homes within the special flood hazard area must have and maintain a flood policy. Home value does not enter into it.

Homes outside a special flood hazard area

For properties outside the special flood hazard area with wind coverage, the requirement applies when the structure's current Coverage A dwelling value meets or exceeds these thresholds:

What is exempt

Citizens states that condominium unit-owner policies, tenant content policies, and policies that exclude windstorm or hail coverage are not required to purchase flood insurance coverage.

Required documentation

New policy applicants and renewing policyholders are required to submit proof of flood coverage meeting the statutory requirements, along with a completed Policyholder Affirmation Regarding Flood Insurance, Citizens form CIT FW01.

Citizens states that proof can be satisfied with any one of the following: a copy of the submitted application and proof of payment as initial proof of compliance while a flood application is pending, a copy of the flood policy declarations, or proof of a flood endorsement meeting the minimum standard on the underlying multiperil policy for Citizens wind-only policies.

How much coverage is required

For dwelling policies, the required flood coverage must be equal to or greater than the Citizens policy dwelling value, Coverage A. Citizens states that if those limits are not available from the NFIP, it will accept the maximum coverage amount for which the insured is eligible: $250,000 Coverage A under the NFIP regular program, or $35,000 Coverage A under the emergency program.

One More Flood Insurance Issue to Watch This Fall

The following is a separate matter from the Citizens requirement above. A federal lapse would not cause or change the January 1 state deadline. It is included because the two overlap in time and both concern flood coverage.

The federal flood program's current authorization

Most flood insurance in the United States is written through the National Flood Insurance Program, a federal program administered by FEMA.

FEMA states that Congress must reauthorize the NFIP by no later than 11:59 p.m. on September 30, 2026.

The Congressional Research Service reports that the NFIP has no single comprehensive expiration provision, and that since the end of fiscal year 2017 there have been 35 short-term reauthorizations. It notes the program lapsed at the start of October 1, 2025 during the federal government shutdown, and that the legislation ending that shutdown reauthorized the NFIP retroactively.

FEMA states that should the authorization lapse, it would still have authority to ensure payment of valid claims with available funds, but would stop selling and renewing policies. FEMA also cites a National Association of Realtors estimate that a lapse might affect approximately 1,300 property sales each day, or roughly 40,000 closings a month nationwide.

The National Association of Realtors states that during a lapse: existing NFIP policies remain in effect until their expiration date, including a 30-day grace period; private flood insurance not backed by the NFIP is not affected; insurers may assign a seller's NFIP policy to a buyer by substituting names, so coverage on the property is maintained without a new policy being issued; and most federal lending regulators suspend the flood insurance purchase requirement during a lapse, leaving it to individual lenders whether to make loans in special flood hazard areas.

Sources

• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, "Citizens' 2026 Multiperil Rates to Drop Statewide," March 4, 2026
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, "2026 Approved Rate Changes by County"
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, flood insurance requirements
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, personal policies
• Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, Property Insurance Clearinghouse brochure
• Florida House of Representatives staff analysis, CS/CS/HB 1503, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
• Florida Auditor General, Report No. 2025-011
• Florida Statute 627.351, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation
• Florida Statute 627.715, Flood insurance
• FEMA, "Congressional Reauthorization for the National Flood Insurance Program"
• Congressional Research Service, "What Happens If the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) Lapses?" IN10835
• National Association of Realtors, "FAQ: National Flood Insurance Program Expires September 30, 2026"

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