Blog: Citizens Property Insurance rate increase may put property out of reach for some
Oct 4, 2012
The following article was published in the Tampa Bay Businss Journal on October 4, 2012:
Citizens’ rate increase may put property out of reach for some
Home sales will be heavily affected by a rate increase by Citizens Property Insurance Corp., hitting buyers particularly hard who are stretching their dollars to buy homes in Southwest Florida’s increasingly competitive market.
Real estate agents and lenders worry that buyers will experience “sticker shock” when they see Florida’s insurance premiums, the Sarasota Herald-Tribune said.
“It will have an impact,” Peter Crowley, president and co-owner of Re/Max Alliance Group in Sarasota, told the Herald-Tribune. “It will very much be driven on price ranges as far as what the tolerance level is for an increase like that.”
Florida insurance regulators this week approved rates for state-run Citizens that will increase hurricane coverage premiums up to 26 percent in Sarasota County and 22 percent in Manatee County next year, the Herald-Tribune said. There are 90,000 customers in the two counties who rely on Citizens, sometimes called the insurer of last resort, for their insurance.
View the original article here: http://www.bizjournals.com/tampabay/blog/morning-edition/2012/10/citizens-rate-increase-may-put.html