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Caladium: USAA is my insurer for my primary residence on Anastasia Island. It's my understanding that USAA has not written new home insurance policies anywhere in the State of Florida for 3+ years. Any primary home which was insured with USAA prior to the freeze was able to keep the insurance with them. I believe that active military who are newly assigned to Florida are exempt from the freeze, but only for their primary residence. USAA is the best insurer in the country. No one can beat their rates and customer service. Call them to verify if the freeze is still in place. I do know for a fact that there are reputable, well funded insurers who will insure houses located less than 2 miles from the ocean if the owners qualify. I have a rental home on the intercoastal waterway and my sister moved into a home on Anastasia Island 3 months ago. Both houses have good insurance. If you only shop the large insurance companies you will not find home insurance. If you private message me, I can give you the name of the independent agent I use in St. Augustine who is excellent. I have referred dozens of people to him and he has helped all but one save a lot on their home and auto insurance. The companies who are writing good insurance for Floridians are those who have found particular niches of clients whose risk of claims is much less than the general population. The questionaires are lengthy and go back a lot of years. If you have a very high credit rating. minimal claims over the past 20 years, do not live in an oceanfront home nor a higher crime area and your house can pass a thorough inspection, I believe you can be insured by a good company. I'm sure there will be replies to this post saying that I don't know what I am talking about because this information is not well known. 3 years ago, I was unaware also.
Ssclulow--thanks for the tip, and I'm sending you a DM. One more reason to be glad to have a a good credit rating, anyway.
I have some time on Wednesday, so I'll make a few calls to USAA and see what the scoop is. I'd hate to let them go--they've been a great company for my whole family. We've never had a claim with them but relatives have and have always been treated well.
This insurance issue does make me a bit nervous. Definitely something to research.
One more reason to be glad to have a a good credit rating, anyway.
I believe that if your credit is good and you have a long-standing record with an insurer (with few if any claims) your chances of having that carrier continue to insure you, wherever you relocate, are very good. For our home we have Liberty Mutual (Amica for our vehicles) who no longer insure in Fl. They are not cheap but they are top notch with alot of bucks. Were it not for the fact that I have been with them for ages they would likely have dropped me the day I moved to Fl. You may have the same fortune with USAA. By the way, they didn't even bother to do an inspection; once they establish that you are moving into a new house they will forego an inspection.
1. Insects. I plan to start a thread on this after I learn a little more. My husband is worried we may be eaten alive by mosquitos and I'm not sure how he's going to like the love bugs that are everywhere. And of course there's the termite issue.
There are some things you have to contend with living in any warm climate (like this part of the country ... warm compared to VA) and one of them is the issue of insects. It's the price you pay for living in a state that calls itself "the Sunshine State." The bugs love it too. OTOH some would have you believe that the termite issue here is akin to the bubonic plague and every house made of wood will eventually be eaten by termites. Nothing is further from the truth if you take the sensible precautions suggested by another poster which bears repeating:
Quote:
Not sure how Termites came up. I wanted to give a quick response to your original question and the termite issue. I do property management and own and manage several stick built homes, some of which have had termite issues. First, when you buy a home you will have a WDO to dertermine if there is a termite issue. Second do not do dumb things, like leave wood up against your home or pile mulch up against your siding. Keep 6" clear between the ground and your siding. And keep an eye out for mud tunnels and rotted wood. Also hire a reputable pest control company, who routinely monitors the property.
Having said that, it is true that termites eat wood, not brick, but as long as you are aware that you can do something about them there is no reason to consider only concrete construction if everything else favors a wood/stucco house that you like in a location that fits your needs.
Imagine that if you were thinking of moving to certain other states, there could be other things that you could do nothing about, acts of nature like earthquakes, mudslides, all kinds of snowstorms, hurricanes (We do get them here but less frequently here than on the Gulf and SoFl) or tornadoes (less frequent than in the midWest) etc. So all in all, we are fortunate (relatively speaking) and bugs like mosquitoes, love bugs and termites you can do something about.
As far as mosquito's go...I do a lot of hunting and outdoor activity on my own property, which in certain areas is mosquito heaven (swampy and wooded with ponds) and have found a couple of devices to be excellent in repelling/eradicating mosquito's, black flies and no-see-ums.
1.) ThermaCell ... for when I'm out hunting in a tree stand or blind.
ThermaCELL Mosquito Repellent - Mosquito Control -NorthlineExpress.com (http://www.northlineexpress.com/items.asp?cc=thermacell-mosquito-repellent&utm_source=msn&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campai gn=Pest%2BControl%2BProducts&utm_content=ThermaCel l%2B - broken link)
2.) Bug Zapper ... for when I am relaxing on my deck ... just your everyday electric bug zapper found at Lowe's, Ace or Home Depot.
Like with termites, if you take the proper precautions they will not bother you.
As long as we can get good insurance, I'm not too worried about the high cost (or the cost of regular termite protection). Factoring those expenses in, NE Florida (so far) still appears to be less expensive than the other places we've considered.
I lived in Manhattan Beach, CA for 20 years and have many friends there so we'd love to retire there. If only we'd kept that tiny little condo we used to own. Units in that building went down in price a little since the recession, but not enough--they're still over $750,000 which is just not practical for retirees.
Hawaii? No way, Jose.
Even coastal Delaware turned out to be expensive. It's a shame because we really like Rehoboth, but c'est la vie. If you're willing to live a few miles inland it becomes a bargain, but it's important for us to be able to walk to the beach and when we went house hunting there we found out the homes we'd consider acceptable weren't in our budget.
There are some factors to living in Florida that make me nervous, but we keep coming back to this idea because it seems to have a few important things we really want, and even with the high cost of insurance it works with our budget.
Caladium: USAA is my insurer for my primary residence on Anastasia Island. It's my understanding that USAA has not written new home insurance policies anywhere in the State of Florida for 3+ years. Any primary home which was insured with USAA prior to the freeze was able to keep the insurance with them. I believe that active military who are newly assigned to Florida are exempt from the freeze, but only for their primary residence. USAA is the best insurer in the country. No one can beat their rates and customer service. Call them to verify if the freeze is still in place. I do know for a fact that there are reputable, well funded insurers who will insure houses located less than 2 miles from the ocean if the owners qualify. I have a rental home on the intercoastal waterway and my sister moved into a home on Anastasia Island 3 months ago. Both houses have good insurance. If you only shop the large insurance companies you will not find home insurance. If you private message me, I can give you the name of the independent agent I use in St. Augustine who is excellent. I have referred dozens of people to him and he has helped all but one save a lot on their home and auto insurance. The companies who are writing good insurance for Floridians are those who have found particular niches of clients whose risk of claims is much less than the general population. The questionaires are lengthy and go back a lot of years. If you have a very high credit rating. minimal claims over the past 20 years, do not live in an oceanfront home nor a higher crime area and your house can pass a thorough inspection, I believe you can be insured by a good company. I'm sure there will be replies to this post saying that I don't know what I am talking about because this information is not well known. 3 years ago, I was unaware also.
This is the USAA story (you are pretty much on target):
USAA didn't do anything unusual. It's simply doing what most major insurance companies have been doing for years.
FWIW - I don't think that credit ratings - claims history in another state or house - or being in a high crime area have anything to do with windstorm risk. Where a house is - and how it is built - do.
And I advise anyone dealing with any of the new kids on the block to examine their financials carefully. Most are *very* undercapitalized. I think it's a big yuck that some of these new kids on the block want *you* to prove you're worthy of them - when *they* should be proving that you should trust them with your business (I've read about some of these companies - there have been newspaper articles - and at least a couple had less cash on hand than the value of a single house they were insuring).
Anyway - this is the way the game works for these new companies and the people who run them these days. They have to meet minimum capital requirements (about $4-5 million IIRC - perhaps the value of one really nice oceanfront house in PVB). So they're in business. They insure as many houses as they can - and spend most of the premium on 2 things. First - reinsurance. Second - their own salaries and benefits.
Now what's wrong with this scenario? A few things. First - after a storm - you need feet on the ground. Insurance company disaster teams. When we returned to our place after Hurricane Andrew - the roads were flooded with disaster teams from all over the country - from companies you've heard of - like Allstate and State Farm. Many of these new kids on the block have about 15 employees. Disaster teams - forget about it (I guess they expect to rent them after the fact).
As for reinsurance - that gets kind of complicated. Because reinsurance is kind of complicated. Technically - reinsurers pay insurers after they pay losses. Their contract is with the insurance company - not with the homeowners - and they have no duty to pay homeowners. So what happens when the insurer doesn't have the money to pay the claims - and/or goes under? Does the reinsurer have to pay? How much - and to whom? What's more important - how long will it take to sort out the mess? Also - what if the reinsurer goes under? Note that one of my specialties when I was still practicing law was insurance litigation - and I have litigated reinsurance cases (between/among big companies). There is not a lot of law in this area - and it is anyone's guess how a judge in Florida who spent his whole legal career as a public defender would rule. About the only thing I could say for almost sure is the check won't be in the mail for quite a while.
I've lived on or near the water here for 40+ years - and always thought the best defense was to live in well-built places (the house you built sounds somewhat similar to ours based on your description) - and to put aside some money in a "rainy day" fund for any storm related losses (including temporary relocation expenses). Because even if you manage to hook up with a decent company that doesn't go belly-up if there's a decent size storm - it may take a long time for the company to get around to reviewing your claim and paying it. And you can't wait 3 months to get your roof covered up if half of your shingles are gone.
Cricketfan - After Hurricane Andrew - Chubb - our insurance company - dropped all its insureds when they moved to another coastal area. In recent years - it has written new insurance for high end homeowners - but I think the total premiums you're paying to the company have to be > $25k for it to accept you as a client. So I wouldn't take it for granted that your company in another state will write you here if you move here (especially if it's dropping existing customers in Florida like crazy). OTOH - it never hurts to ask.
Also - people have to be aware of what homeowners' policies cover and don't cover. For example - they do not in general cover landscaping - pools or pool enclosures. And - if you buy loss assessment coverage (highly recommended) - for assessments by your HOA or condo association after a loss - remember that if the loss isn't covered if it happens on your property - it won't be covered if the loss happens in common areas and you're assessed for it. For example - we had a $5k assessment from our condo association for landscaping replacement after Andrew - and it wasn't covered by insurance.
Finally - I think the insurance situation in Florida is a total disgrace. Caused by years of politicians pandering to constituents and keeping rates artificially low. If we had reasonable rates that reflected the risks of coastal construction - our insurance market would be a lot stronger and a lot healthier (and we'd probably have less coastal construction - and it would be sturdier). And I think the next shock will come in the form of rising rates for federal flood insurance (since that program is under water to the tune of about $20 billion now). Robyn
Apparently Robyn55 does not have much faith in Demotech's Insurance Rating System. You can also look at AM Best. Demotech's Rating is only a first start; they also provide a Financial Summary of the company. But Robyn55 is 100% right about most insurance companies being under capitalized. And if you think the companies I mentioned are borderline, you should look at the financial statements on some of the other Florida Insurance Companies. Make sure if you use a independent insurance agent you do your own research and ask about the insurance company rating and who rated them. I mentioned Allstate because even when they are brokering policies they still have a reputation to up hold and do not broker with any companies less than "A" rated (at least that has been my experience with them). Robyn55 is also correct about insurance companies doing their own inspections and some have tougher inspections than others. They are all going to be looking at your roof and checking for rotted wood. The house I currently live in could not pass a 4-Point so I had to insure with Citizens (very expensive), until I get a chance to make the required updates. If you PM me I can give you my All State Agents name.
Treasure trove of information in this thread. Even after two trips to the area (10 days, and 44 days) I have learned a lot here. Thank you.
Although finding an area of St. Augustine we like, and deciding we can and will drive to the beach access, we are hesitant about the insurance issues. Have actually considered the purchase of a well built block home and taking the risk ourselves rather than insuring with a questionable firm. Scary but possible.
For us "misfits" who are socially progressive and unlikely to fit into the mold . . . there is hope! If you can survive in Alabama you will thrive in Florida! Good luck Caladium - would love to have you for a neighbor one day.
I have just moved to a new stucco frame home and have insurance at $850 with Florida Peninsular who after much research seem the best priced.
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