How will David Jolly make housing more affordable for Florida families?

The pressure on Florida families

Across Florida, people are saying the same thing. They cannot afford to live here anymore.

Florida's median home price hit $420,000 at the end of 2024, above the national median for the first time.^[4] Insurance premiums rank among the highest in the country, with estimates ranging from roughly $5,400 to over $14,000 per year depending on coverage level and location.^[5] Half of Florida renters are cost-burdened, paying over 30 percent of income just for housing.^[6] The median age of first-time homebuyers hit a record high, with young families priced out entirely.^[7]

This is not a moment of rising prices. This is an economic crisis gripping far too many people across the state. Florida is slipping away from working families who built it.

Why insurance is the main barrier

The property insurance crisis is the primary reason housing has become unaffordable in Florida.^[1] Multiple national insurers pulled out of the state between 2021 and 2024, citing hurricane risk and reinsurance costs.^[8] Florida led the nation in homeowner insurance non-renewal rates at 2.99 percent of policies in 2023, a 280 percent rise from 2018.^[9]

For renters, that pressure flows straight through. Landlords pay the higher premiums, then pass the costs to tenants. For homeowners, insurance is now often larger than the mortgage payment itself. For retirees on fixed income, a $10,000 annual insurance bill becomes the reason they sell and leave.

The current approach has failed. Litigation reforms in 2022 and 2023 addressed one driver of costs, but did nothing to reduce the underlying exposure to hurricane risk.^[10] Private carriers are returning to the market, but at rates working families cannot afford. Citizens Property Insurance, the state insurer of last resort, has shrunk from about 1.4 million policies to roughly 395,000 as policies move back to private carriers, but not at lower costs.^[11]

The state catastrophic fund

David Jolly's plan is to remove hurricane coverage from the private market entirely and place it in a state catastrophic fund.^[1]

Florida already operates the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund, which held $7.12 billion as of December 31, 2024, and is authorized to cover up to $17 billion in losses through a combination of reserves and bonding capacity.^[12] The FHCF currently functions as reinsurance for private insurers. Jolly's plan expands that role to absorb hurricane coverage directly, removing the most volatile peril from the private market.

This is not a bailout. Homeowners would still pay for hurricane coverage. The difference is that pooling the risk across all Florida homes spreads the exposure efficiently, the same way Medicare or Social Security pool risk across millions of people. Without the need for private carriers to add risk margins on top of actuarial costs, premiums drop sharply.

The projected savings: 60 to 70 percent for homeowners.^[1] For a family currently paying $10,000 per year, that is $6,000 to $7,000 back in their budget annually. For renters, it is a direct cut to the costs their landlords pass through. For retirees, it is the difference between staying in Florida and being forced out.

Condo owners facing crushing assessments

Florida Senate Bill 4-D, signed in 2022 in response to the Surfside Champlain Towers collapse, requires milestone structural inspections for all condo buildings three stories or taller and full funding of structural reserves starting January 1, 2025.^[13] Special assessments are commonly $5,000 to $150,000 per unit, with outlier coastal buildings imposing $200,000 or more.^[14] Monthly HOA dues are up 20 to 40 percent across coastal condos. Older buildings are increasingly unsellable.

David Jolly's plan creates a no-interest state-backed loan program for condo associations and owners.^[2] The loans allow associations to spread the cost of inspections and repairs over a longer period without forcing fixed-income owners to sell. The state absorbs the financing cost; condo owners repay the principal over time. This stabilizes the Florida condo market and prevents the collapse of property tax bases in coastal communities.

Renters and first-time buyers

For renters, the path to affordability is supply. Florida is among the states with the most acute rent-affordability crisis, with more than half of Florida renters cost-burdened.^[6] Rents rose dramatically from 2020 through 2023, and wages did not keep pace.^[15]

David Jolly's plan scales up investment in workforce and affordable housing through Florida's SAIL and SHIP programs, targeting units based on income, trade, and proximity to work.^[3] Public-private partnerships from Miami to Pensacola have proven successful at delivering affordable rental units. The current administration has failed to invest at the scale needed.^[16]

For first-time buyers, affordability relief comes from multiple fronts. The catastrophic fund reduces insurance costs for new buyers just as much as for existing owners. Lower insurance means lower monthly housing costs, which brings more buyers into qualifying income ranges. The state's existing Hometown Heroes program provides down-payment assistance,^[17] but the program only works if the underlying cost structure is sustainable. Jolly's plan addresses the cost structure.

Utilities and the monthly housing bill

Housing affordability is not just rent or mortgage. It is the full monthly bill: housing costs plus utilities plus insurance.

Florida Power & Light's authorized return on equity is 10.95 percent under a settlement effective through December 2029, among the highest in the country and topping Tampa Electric's 10.5 percent.^[18] David Jolly's plan caps investor-backed utility profit at the national average, roughly 9 to 10 percent.^[19]

This does not threaten grid investment. Utilities in other states earning 9 to 10 percent continue to invest in grid modernization, renewable integration, and storm hardening. It stops the outlier markup and restores rate fairness for homeowners and renters alike.

Who this helps

This plan helps renters by scaling supply and cutting the utility costs landlords pass through. It helps homeowners by slashing insurance premiums. It helps condo owners by financing special assessments without forced sales. It helps retirees on fixed income by removing the largest single cost pressure from their monthly budgets. It helps first-time buyers by lowering the monthly cost of ownership to sustainable levels.

Different people. Different housing situations. Same crisis. And the same recognition that Florida is slipping away from the families who built it.