Notes
What should we know about homeowners and flood insurance?
Get quotes early, before you have a favorite house, because Florida premiums and deductibles can change the monthly payment more than the mortgage rate. Flood insurance is a separate policy and is not the same as wind coverage. A licensed Florida agent who can see the flood zone and roof year will tell you more than a national average.
Last reviewed September 21, 2026.
People who last bought a house in Ohio or Colorado often treat insurance as a rounding error. In Florida it can be a second mortgage payment. We will not invent a countywide premium here — those numbers go stale in a season and vary by roof, distance to coast, claims history, and which companies will write the risk. The relocator skill is to collect real quotes on real addresses before you write an offer you cannot sleep on.
A homeowners policy is not a flood policy. Wind and named-storm deductibles are often a percentage of dwelling value, not a flat $1,000. Flood coverage through the National Flood Insurance Program or a private flood market is a separate decision. “We are not in a flood zone” is a sentence that needs a map, an elevation, and an agent — and even then, rainfall flooding happens outside the lines people remember from a 20-year-old closing.
Citizens Property Insurance, Florida’s insurer of last resort, and surplus-lines carriers show up in conversations here more than they do in many inland states. Being with Citizens is not a moral failing; it is a market condition. Ask what it would take to move to the admitted market later, and what inspections (roof, four-point, wind mitigation) you will need either way. A 15-year-old roof on a coastal street and a new roof a few miles inland are different products.
Start the insurance conversation when you start the neighborhood conversation. An agent licensed in Florida can run a flood determination and a rough premium band from an address or a parcel. If the number only works after you assume a best-case deductible and no flood policy, you do not have a number. Sellers sometimes provide a current declaration page; that page is a clue, not a promise that you will be offered the same rate.
Condos and HOA master policies add another layer. Read what the association covers — building, wind, flood — and what your unit-owners policy must pick up. Waterfront and barrier-island buildings can have special assessments after storms. That is not a reason to avoid St. Augustine Beach or Ponte Vedra. It is a reason to read the documents.
We are not agents. We are people who learned not to save insurance for the week of the inspection. If you want a plain-language list of what to ask, send a note. Official consumer context lives at the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation and FloodSmart.