Insurance is the line item that surprises people moving to Southwest Florida, and the one where a brand-new house has a genuine, structural advantage over the resale down the road. Here are the current numbers for Charlotte, Lee and Collier, why new construction prices better, and the four things worth doing in the first month of ownership.
What it actually costs
The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation publishes average homeowners premiums including wind, by county. As at 31 March 2026:
| County | Average premium (Mar 2026) | Six months earlier (Sep 2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Charlotte | $3,160 | $3,222 |
| Lee | $3,576 | $3,646 |
| Collier | $5,534 | $5,565 |
All three fell over that six months. For context, the statewide spread runs from about $2,191 in Marion County to $7,863 in Monroe. OIR is explicit that what you are actually charged varies by carrier, insured value, deductibles and policy terms — treat these as orientation, not a quote.
Two things are worth knowing about the market you are buying into. Twenty-one new companies have been approved to write residential property in Florida since the recent reforms. And for policies effective in 2024 or later, 44 companies filed for a rate decrease and 48 filed for no change at all.
Why a new house prices better
This is not a sales point, it is arithmetic. Florida law — section 627.0629 — requires residential property insurers to build actuarially reasonable discounts into their rate filings for construction features that reduce windstorm losses: roof strength, roof covering performance, roof-to-wall strength, wall-to-floor-to-foundation strength, opening protection, and window, door and skylight strength.
A new home in Southwest Florida arrives with all of them, plus a roof that is zero years old, plus the Florida Building Code credit that applies to anything permitted on or after 1 March 2002. You are not retrofitting to earn credits. You start with them.
Get the wind mitigation form
The credits are not automatic. They are claimed on the Uniform Mitigation Verification Inspection Form (OIR-B1-1802), which covers seven categories: building code compliance, roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall attachment, roof geometry, secondary water resistance and opening protection. The form states it is valid for up to five years provided no material changes are made to the structure.
The form was revised effective 1 April 2026. Inspections done on or after that date use the new version, which adds FORTIFIED Home certificates, a region designation based on design wind speed, and roof slope documentation. Citizens has said the additions do not change the credits currently available.
Two practical notes. Only certain people can sign it — a licensed home inspector with hurricane mitigation training, a certified building code inspector, a licensed contractor, engineer or architect, among others. And a private insurer may pay to independently verify a form before accepting it, though a form submitted to Citizens is not subject to that.
You will see figures quoted for what each feature saves. OIR does not publish a universal discount table — credits are filed company by company and derived actuarially. The only way to know what your features are worth is to get the form and shop it.
No four-point inspection
The four-point inspection — electrical, plumbing, HVAC, roof — is an underwriting requirement, not a legal one. No Florida statute requires or exempts it. Carriers apply it to older houses: Citizens, for example, requires one for properties more than 20 years old. On a new build all four systems are new, permitted and inspected, which is why the requirement does not come up.
Roof age, later
Not your problem yet, but worth knowing it exists. Section 627.7011 says an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a policy on a home with a roof less than 15 years old solely because of the roof’s age. Past 15 years, you have the right to pay for an inspection first, and the insurer may not refuse solely on age if that inspection shows five or more years of useful life remaining. Roof age runs from the last date 100% of the roof surface was built or replaced to the code in effect at the time — so your clock starts at closing.
Impact glass or shutters
In a wind-borne debris region, the Florida Building Code requires glazed openings to be impact resistant or protected with an impact-resistant covering. Both satisfy the code. Anyone telling you impact glass is mandatory is describing a preference, or a builder’s standard spec, not the law. Openings within 30 feet of grade must meet the large missile test — a 4.5 lb two-by-four at 40 feet per second, followed by thousands of pressure cycles.
Design wind speed is address-specific, not county-wide. Cape Coral publishes 160 mph for new residential construction; Charlotte and Collier leave it as a per-site figure on their permit sheets, and Collier uses its own locally adopted wind maps rather than the statewide ones. Ask what design wind speed your specific homesite was permitted to, and get the answer in writing.
One date worth having: the 8th Edition (2023) Florida Building Code took effect 31 December 2023, and the 9th Edition (2026) takes effect 31 December 2026. Which edition your house is permitted under is a permanent attribute of the building.
Citizens, and why you probably will not be with them
Citizens Property Insurance is the state-created insurer of last resort. Its statutory job is applicants who, in good faith, cannot get coverage in the voluntary market. You are not eligible if an authorised insurer offers comparable coverage at a premium not more than 20% above the Citizens premium.
The population has collapsed as private carriers have returned: from a peak of 1.42 million policies in October 2023 to 293,465 as at 5 June 2026 — the lowest in 25 years — with more than 546,000 policies transferred to private insurers in 2025 alone through the depopulation programme. Citizens recommended its first rate cuts since 2015 for 2026.
If you do end up with Citizens, note the flood requirement, which is phasing in by dwelling coverage: $400,000 and above from 1 January 2026, and every personal lines residential policy regardless of value from 1 January 2027.
Flood is a separate policy, and a separate decision
Homeowners insurance does not cover flood. Anywhere.
If your homesite is in a Special Flood Hazard Area and you have a federally backed mortgage, flood insurance is required as a condition of the loan. Outside a high-risk zone it is optional — and about a third of NFIP claims over the last decade came from outside high-risk areas, so optional is not the same as unnecessary.
Look the parcel up yourself at FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center before you sign, not after. Under Risk Rating 2.0, premiums are now priced at the structure level using flood type, distance from the water, frequency, elevation and rebuild cost, rather than by flood zone alone — so two homesites in the same zone can price differently.
A new NFIP policy normally takes effect 30 days after application. But when the purchase is in connection with making, increasing, extending or renewing a mortgage loan, there is no waiting period — coverage is effective at closing, provided the request and premium are submitted at or before closing. Buyers lose money getting this wrong; get it on the closing checklist.
One risk to be aware of rather than plan around: the NFIP operates on congressional authorisation that has to be renewed periodically, and during past lapses the programme could not write new policies. In the 2010 lapse, industry figures put cancelled or delayed closings at roughly 1,400 a day. Existing policies stay in force through a lapse and can generally be assigned from seller to buyer, and private flood insurance remains available. If your closing is near an authorisation deadline, ask your lender and title company what their plan is.
My Safe Florida Home will not help you
It comes up constantly, so here is the answer. The MSFH grant programme requires that the building permit application for the home’s initial construction was made before 1 January 2008. A new house does not qualify, full stop. The free wind mitigation inspection has no such date restriction, but it does require that a homestead exemption has been granted on the home — which, if you have just closed, you will not have until the following tax year.
It is a retrofit programme for older housing stock. Your house is the thing it is trying to turn other houses into.
The first-month checklist
- Get a wind mitigation inspection and the OIR-B1-1802 form. Then shop it — the credits are only worth what a carrier will pay for them, and carriers differ.
- Get the design wind speed and the building code edition your home was permitted under, in writing, and file them with the closing papers.
- Look up the parcel at FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center. If a flood policy is required, make sure it binds at closing rather than 30 days later.
- Diary the roof date. It is the date 100% of the roof was completed, and it governs your insurability from year 15 onward.
We are licensed Florida real estate professionals, not insurance agents. Nothing here is an insurance recommendation, and figures that change annually are dated above. Get quotes from a licensed Florida agent before you rely on any number in this piece.