Homeowners property insurance rates are falling further in catastrophe exposed Florida and Louisiana, with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s Board of Governors recommending rate cuts for most policyholders and the Louisiana Department of Insurance announcing insurers rate decreases.Both of these US states have introduced legislative reforms related to property insurance and policyholders are beginning to reap the benefits, as reinsurance risk capital’s confidence in underwriting business in Florida and Louisiana increases in both cases.As we’ve explained before, in the case of Florida, , while Florida Citizens itself said that it is anticipating lower reinsurance costs in 2026 as the insurer of last resort’s policy count decreases.In addition, at the recent 2025 Florida Chamber Annual Insurance Summit, and also cited the legislative reforms as a driver of growing confidence in the state.

Further evidence of the improvement in coastal US states property insurance markets emerged with announcements from Florida Citizens and the Louisiana Insurance Commissioner yesterday, with both states experiencing growing demand from risk capital and reinsurance that is helping to lower the cost of property insurance for the residents of these states.Florida Citizens said that its Board of Governors “approved 2026 rate recommendations that reduce average rates for Citizens’ personal lines policyholders for the first time since 2015.” A statewide average reduction in rates of 2.6% is recommended for personal lines policies, as a result of which three out of five Citizens policyholders are expected to benefit from an average premium reduction of 11.5%, equivalent to an average of $359.“Critical reforms championed by Gov.

DeSantis and approved by the Florida Legislature have done what they were supposed to do: provide rate relief to policyholders and stability to the Florida market,” explained Tim Cerio, Citizens President/CEO and Executive Director.“These 2026 rate proposals are further confirmation that Florida’s insurance market is thriving.” Florida Citizens policy count is forecast to decline to 385,000 around the end of 2025, which is now a 73% decline from a peak of 1.42 million policies at October 2023.Citizens is no longer the largest property insurer in Florida and the reforms that have encouraged the launch of 17 new insurers there are seen as a critical driver.

Underpinning that, the reforms have fostered greater reinsurance market appetite to support property risks in Florida as well and if the property catastrophe market remains major loss free .“Thanks to the Governor’s leadership and the Legislature’s actions, I can say unequivocally that Citizens has returned to its proper role as Florida’s insurer of last resort,” Cerio added.“It’s important now for us to stay the course and resist any effort to roll back the critical reforms responsible for this success.” In Louisiana, that state’s Insurance Commissioner Tim Temple has approved two of the SageSure linked underwriting entities, SureChoice Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (SURE) and Elevate Reciprocal Exchange, for a 7.5% average rate decrease on 73,000-plus homeowners policyholders and 17,000-plus dwelling policyholders.

As the second largest homeowners insurer in the state, this is another meaningful signal from SURE, indicating improving confidence in Louisiana’s property insurance market.The Louisiana Department of Insurance said that SURE indicated that its rate decreases are “primarily driven by a reduction in reinsurance costs.” “Since taking office, I’ve met several times with reinsurers to determine how we can encourage them to invest more capital in the Louisiana homeowners market, as well as how we can reduce the risk—and the cost—associated with that investment,” explained Commissioner Temple.“Reinsurers consistently brought up the need for Louisiana to amend the three-year rule, clarify our catastrophe claims process and put far more emphasis on resilience and mitigation programs.

While we still have a long way to go before all Louisianans can benefit from these changes, we have made great strides and are beginning to see the results of our hard work.” These are positive signals for property insurance policyholder’s in Florida and Louisiana and given the softening of catastrophe reinsurance pricing that is anticipated, with broadly 10% to 20% expected and higher in top-layers it seems, this trend is also likely to have a positive effect on property insurance rates in other peak-catastrophe exposed and coastal US states..All of our Artemis Live insurance-linked securities (ILS), catastrophe bonds and reinsurance can be accessed online.Our can be subscribed to using the typical podcast services providers, including Apple, Google, Spotify and more.