By Cibie Cahur, The Cahur Group at Keller Williams Jupiter | Palm Beach and Martin County, FL | Published September 10, 2026
Quick answer: The average homeowners policy in Palm Beach County costs $6,323 a year including wind coverage, according to the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation’s Property Insurance Stability Report of July 1, 2026, which reports premiums charged on policies in force as of March 31, 2026. Only Monroe County averages more. The figure is down 1.4% from the $6,412 average in the January 2026 edition of the same report.
Key Takeaways
- The county average is $6,323 a year with wind coverage. Policies excluding wind averaged $3,175, and condo unit-owner policies averaged $2,311 with wind (Florida OIR, July 1, 2026).
- Prices are easing. Palm Beach fell 1.4% and Martin County 1.6% between the January and July 2026 reports, and the homeowners average declined in 51 of Florida’s 67 counties.
- Florida insurers must offer hurricane deductibles of $500, 2%, 5%, and 10% of the dwelling limit, which makes the deductible you pick a second price tag (s. 627.701(3)(a), Florida Statutes).
- Flood coverage is a separate policy, and Citizens has required it since January 1, 2026 at a dwelling replacement cost of $400,000 or more. On January 1, 2027 the requirement reaches every eligible personal residential policy.
- Citizens agents cannot bind new coverage while the National Weather Service has a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning posted anywhere in Florida, which makes September closings awkward.
What does homeowners insurance actually cost in Palm Beach County?
In 2026, the average Palm Beach County homeowners premium including wind coverage is $6,323 a year, about $527 a month (Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Property Insurance Stability Report, July 1, 2026). Policies that exclude wind coverage averaged $3,175. Condo unit-owner policies averaged $2,311 with wind and $1,703 without.
OIR reaches that number by dividing the total premium reported by insurers with wind coverage in a county by the policies in force with wind coverage there. The report is blunt about the limits: “Actual charged premium will vary based upon company, insured value, deductibles, and policy terms.”
So this is regulator data on policies people actually pay for, calculated from in-force premium rather than from a sample of quotes. That is worth knowing before you compare it against any other “Florida average” you run into, because a number built a different way is not measuring the same thing. It is also an average that spans Jupiter, West Palm Beach, and Palm Beach Island, so it will never describe one particular house well. Use it to set a budget line, then go get a quote.
Are Palm Beach County premiums going up or down?
They are going down, though not by much. Palm Beach County’s average fell 1.4%, from $6,412 to $6,323, between the January 2026 and July 2026 stability reports. Martin County fell 1.6%, from $5,993 to $5,899. Statewide, the homeowners average including wind declined in 51 of 67 counties (Florida OIR, July 1, 2026). Those reports capture September 30, 2025 and March 31, 2026, so that 1.4% covers about six months of pricing.
The supply side explains the direction. For residential policies effective in 2024 or later, 44 companies requested a rate decrease and 48 requested no change. Florida’s domestic property insurers posted a pooled combined ratio of 83% in 2025, which OIR calls the lowest in more than a decade, and 21 new companies have been approved to write residential property since the 2022 and 2023 reforms. Preliminary 2026 reinsurance data points to at least a 10% decrease in risk-adjusted reinsurance costs across most layers versus 2025. Triple-I read it the same way, announcing on April 1, 2026 that its issues brief Florida: State of the Risk counted more than 185 residential property rate filings over the previous two years that reflected decreases or flat rates.
Waiting for cheaper coverage has not paid off so far. Palm Beach County’s single-family median sale price rose 7.64% year over year in July 2026, from $613,250 to $660,090, on 3.7 months of supply (MIAMI REALTORS and BeachesMLS, released August 17, 2026). A few hundred dollars of premium relief has not offset that. Our Q3 2026 market update has the fuller picture.
Why does the same house cost more to insure here?
Wind is most of the answer. Palm Beach County homeowners policies including wind coverage averaged $6,323 in 2026, while policies excluding wind averaged $3,175 (Florida OIR, July 1, 2026). Those are two separate groups of policies, so the gap between them is not a line item you will find on your own declarations page. Read it instead as a signal about how the market prices windstorm exposure here.
Behind that charge sits reinsurance, the coverage your insurer buys to survive a bad season. OIR’s 2025 catastrophe stress test modeled a three-storm sequence based on the 1928 Lake Okeechobee hurricane, 2018’s Hurricane Michael, and 2005’s Hurricane Wilma: roughly $78.1 billion in insured losses, cut to about $18.4 billion net after reinsurance. OIR is explicit that scenarios like these are extremely rare and the modeled losses intentionally excessive, which is rather the point of a stress test. Somebody pays for that backstop, and it arrives in your premium.
The rest is your specific house: roof age and covering, opening protection, wall construction, distance from open water. Two homes on one street at the same price can quote very differently, so what a comparable pays tells you very little about your own number. If you are shopping the coast, our guides to waterfront homes and beachfront carrying costs go further into both.
What the premium leaves out: your hurricane deductible
The premium is one of two numbers that matter here. The hurricane deductible is the other, and you only meet it after a storm. Under s. 627.701(3)(a), Florida Statutes, insurers writing personal lines residential policies must offer hurricane deductibles equal to $500, 2%, 5%, and 10% of the policy dwelling limits, with exceptions by size: the $500 option is not required once dwelling limits reach $250,000, a 3% option may substitute for 2% between $1 million and $3 million, and above $3 million the 2% option is not required at all.
Percentages compound fast. On a $700,000 dwelling limit, 2% is $14,000, 5% is $35,000, and 10% is $70,000, per hurricane event, before your insurer pays anything. In the higher bands around Palm Beach Island, the smallest option a carrier must offer may already be a six-figure number.
That is why three quotes are not comparable until you line up the deductibles. The cheapest premium on a page is often the one attached to the largest deductible. Normalize the deductible first, then compare premiums. Otherwise you are really comparing how much risk each carrier is handing back to you.
Florida also allows a separate roof deductible. Under s. 627.701(10), it cannot exceed the lesser of 2% of the Coverage A limit or 50% of the cost to replace the roof. It does not apply to a total loss under the valued policy law, to roof loss caused by a hurricane, to a tree or other hazard puncturing the roof deck, or when repairs cover less than 50% of the roof.
By the numbers: Florida insurers must offer hurricane deductibles of $500, 2%, 5%, and 10% of dwelling limits (s. 627.701(3)(a), Florida Statutes). A separate roof deductible may not exceed the lesser of 2% of Coverage A or 50% of the roof’s replacement cost.
Do you also need flood insurance?
A Florida homeowners policy does not cover flood, and for a growing share of the county, carrying a separate flood policy is now mandatory. Under s. 627.351(6)(aa), Florida Statutes, Citizens policyholders must carry flood insurance on a phased schedule: dwelling replacement costs of $600,000 or more from January 1, 2024, $500,000 or more from January 1, 2025, $400,000 or more from January 1, 2026, and all other personal residential policies from January 1, 2027.
That applies whether or not the home sits in a FEMA special flood hazard area. Policies inside one have needed flood coverage at issuance since April 1, 2023 and at renewal since July 1, 2023. The rule does not reach policies that exclude wind, or condo unit-owner forms.
For scale, FEMA counted 1,727,900 NFIP policies in force in Florida and an average NFIP claim payout of $28,100 over the prior ten years, in its Florida Risk Rating 2.0 state profile published April 2025. FEMA has not published a newer profile, so read those as 2025 baselines. Two of its rules still apply: increases are capped at 18% per year for most policies, and policyholders in communities enrolled in FEMA’s Community Rating System save an average of $162, or 15%, per year.
Get the flood quote in the same week as the homeowners quote, not after. Replacement cost is what triggers the Citizens requirement, so plenty of inland buyers well outside a flood zone now need a flood number in their budget for the first time. Our home inspection guide for Palm Beach County buyers covers how to sequence that window.
By the numbers: Citizens policyholders at a dwelling replacement cost of $400,000 or more have had to carry flood insurance since January 1, 2026; on January 1, 2027 the requirement reaches all other eligible personal residential policies (s. 627.351(6)(aa), Florida Statutes).
Can you still get Citizens, and should you want to?
Citizens is Florida’s insurer of last resort, and state law makes it genuinely last. Under s. 627.351(6)(c)5.a., Florida Statutes, a new application on a primary residence is not eligible if an authorized insurer offers comparable coverage unless that private premium is more than 20 percent greater than Citizens’ premium. Renewals run on a separate test, so ask which one you are being measured against. Separately, s. 627.351(6)(a)3. makes a home with a dwelling replacement cost of $700,000 or more ineligible, except in counties where OIR finds no reasonable degree of competition, where the threshold rises to $1 million.
That threshold is written in replacement cost. Eligibility turns on what it would take to rebuild the house, which can sit well above or well below what you paid for it, so a sale price near $700,000 tells you nothing on its own.
Citizens has been shrinking fast, reporting 266,117 policies in force as of September 4, 2026, down from 392,689 at the end of January 2026. OIR called its June 5, 2026 count of 293,465 the lowest in 25 years. Citizens announced on March 4, 2026 that approved 2026 changes would cut homeowners multiperil rates by an average of 8.8% and wind-only rates by 5.5%, effective July 1 for new policies and at renewal for existing ones.
As of March 31, 2026, Citizens held just 1.05% of Florida’s homeowners multi-peril policies but 57.33% of homeowners wind-only policies. That second figure gets less attention than it deserves. Depopulation has clearly worked on the ordinary business, but the wind-only book is where the private market still hesitates, and that concentration is a fair proxy for which addresses will be hardest to place.
By the numbers: A new Citizens application on a Florida primary residence is ineligible if an authorized insurer offers comparable coverage at a premium no more than 20 percent above Citizens’ own (s. 627.351(6)(c)5.a.), or if the dwelling replacement cost reaches $700,000, rising to $1 million in counties OIR finds lack reasonable competition (s. 627.351(6)(a)3.).
How do you lower the number before you close?
Start with a wind mitigation inspection, because Florida law requires the discount. Section 627.0629, Florida Statutes, requires residential rate filings to include actuarially reasonable discounts, credits, or other rate differentials for features that reduce windstorm losses: wind uplift prevention, roof strength, roof covering performance, roof-to-wall strength, wall-to-floor-to-foundation strength, opening protection, and window, door, and skylight strength.
The uniform mitigation verification inspection form captures those features. Under s. 627.711, Florida Statutes, it may be signed by a licensed home inspector, a certified building code inspector, a licensed general, building, or residential contractor, a licensed professional engineer, or a licensed architect. Insurers must notify policyholders at issuance and at each renewal of the availability and range of each discount. If nobody has told you what yours are, ask in writing.
Roof age is the other thing you can act on, and it is regulated too. Under s. 627.7011, Florida Statutes, an insurer may not refuse to issue or renew a policy on a structure with a roof under 15 years old solely because of the roof’s age. At 15 years or older, an inspection showing at least five years of remaining useful life must be allowed before replacement can be required.
If the home qualifies, look at My Safe Florida Home, run by the Florida Department of Financial Services. Under s. 215.5586, Florida Statutes, free hurricane mitigation inspections go to site-built, owner-occupied single-family homes with a homestead exemption, and grants match $2 in state funds for every $1 from the applicant, up to a $10,000 state contribution, for opening protection and roof work. Grants carry extra conditions, including an insured value of $700,000 or less, a home built before January 1, 2008, and a low-income or moderate-income applicant as defined in s. 420.0004. That ceiling is written in insured value, not sale price, so it is not the same test as the number on the listing. Funding depends on legislative appropriation, so confirm current status first.
OIR also runs a free CHOICES Rate Comparison Tool showing sample average rates by county. It will not quote your house, but it will tell you whether the number in front of you is in the neighborhood.
Why September is the hardest month to bind a policy
The Atlantic hurricane season runs from June 1 to November 30, and NOAA’s National Hurricane Center puts the statistical peak at September 10. That collides directly with a closing calendar.
When the National Weather Service issues a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning for any part of Florida, Citizens agents may not bind applications for new coverage or process changes that increase coverage, regardless of effective date. Citizens will still process transactions submitted before the suspension took effect. The pattern shows in Citizens’ own published binding alerts: suspended July 19, 2026, lifted July 22, 2026.
So “shop insurance before closing” is too loose a rule for hurricane season. Order the wind mitigation inspection in the first days of the inspection period, get quotes back the same week, and bind while the sky is clear. Because the trigger is a watch or warning anywhere in Florida, a system threatening only the Panhandle, hundreds of miles up the coast, can stall a Friday closing in Palm City or Stuart under a perfectly clear local sky.
Ready to price a specific address?
Put the insurance number into your model before you write an offer. If you are weighing a specific house in Palm Beach or Martin County and want that cost in the math before you commit, get in touch with The Cahur Group or call 561-401-5758. We work in English, Spanish, and French.
Frequently asked questions
How much is homeowners insurance in Palm Beach County per month?
The county average of $6,323 a year works out to about $527 a month (Florida OIR, Property Insurance Stability Report, July 1, 2026). Lenders escrow it alongside taxes, so it lands inside your monthly payment. Your figure depends on construction, roof, deductible, and flood zone.
Is Palm Beach County the most expensive county in Florida for home insurance?
It is second. Monroe County averaged $7,863 for homeowners policies including wind coverage in 2026, ahead of Palm Beach at $6,323, Broward at $6,136, and Miami-Dade at $5,975 (Florida OIR, July 1, 2026). Martin County averaged $5,899, fifth highest in the state.
Does homeowners insurance cover flood damage in Florida?
No. Flood is always a separate policy. Since January 1, 2026, Citizens policyholders with a dwelling replacement cost of $400,000 or more have been required to carry flood insurance, and the requirement extends to all other eligible personal residential policies on January 1, 2027 (s. 627.351(6)(aa), Florida Statutes).
What is a hurricane deductible and how much is it?
It is a percentage of your dwelling limit that you pay per hurricane before coverage responds. Florida insurers must offer $500, 2%, 5%, and 10% options, with the $500 option not required at dwelling limits of $250,000 or more (s. 627.701(3)(a), Florida Statutes). On a $700,000 dwelling limit, 2% is $14,000.
Can I get an insurance quote after I go under contract?
You can, but move fast. Citizens suspends binding when the National Weather Service issues a tropical storm or hurricane watch or warning for any part of Florida (Citizens Property Insurance Corporation), which is a live possibility in September. Our first-time buyer mistakes guide covers the rest of the timeline.
The short version
Palm Beach County homeowners insurance averages $6,323 a year including wind coverage, second highest of Florida’s 67 counties, and it is drifting down. The premium is only part of the price. Your hurricane deductible, your roof deductible, and a separate flood policy decide what a bad season actually costs you.
You can still move the number. Get a wind mitigation inspection and make the carrier apply the credits the statute requires, normalize the deductibles before you compare quotes, and bind while the sky is clear. For the rest of the carrying cost, see closing costs for Florida buyers, HOA dues in Palm Beach Gardens, and hurricane-resilient construction in South Florida.
Figures come from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the Florida Statutes, FEMA, NOAA, Triple-I, and MIAMI REALTORS with BeachesMLS, as cited inline. Premiums and rules change. This is general market information, not insurance advice; confirm current terms with a licensed Florida insurance agent.
