Saint Petersblog
“Sunburn – The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics – October 26”
October 26, 2015STUDY: SHORING UP FLORIDA’S PROPERTY INSURANCE MARKET via R.J. Lehmann of The James Madison Institute – Florida has subsequently enjoyed a hurricane-free decade, representing the longest period on record without a tropical cyclone making landfall in the state … many scientists believe climate change will only increase the severity and incidence of storms in the future. While the state’s geography and risk profile haven’t changed, its built environment and the number of lives and amount of property at risk of hurricanes have grown dramatically. This concentration of population and property in high-risk coastal areas, in addition to the costs associated with the 2004 and 2005 storm seasons, all contributed to property insurance premium increases in the years following Wilma … This has resulted in capital flooding into catastrophe markets, which in turn have produced new and innovative risk-transfer products and seen fierce competition among traditional reinsurers. Florida has benefited handsomely from this “buyers’ market. Yet despite this remarkable streak of combined luck, average property-insurance premiums are still on the rise in some parts of Florida. Consumers have legitimate concerns when they ask why this is the case, when insurance companies have had a decade to save up for the next strike.Article: http://www.saintpetersblog.com/archives/242785
