=Citizens Property Insurance Corp. — Florida’s state-created insurer of last resort — has officially lost its title as the largest property insurance provider in the state. The shift marks a key milestone in efforts to restore a more stable, market-driven insurance environment.
Late last week, Citizens officials announced that policy takeouts and assumptions by private carriers in October reduced the company’s total policy count to around 560,000 — a level last seen in the spring of 2021, just before Florida’s litigation crisis deepened and a wave of insurer failures dramatically increased Citizens’ exposure.
With this reduction, Universal Property & Casualty Insurance, based in Fort Lauderdale, and State Farm Florida Insurance have now overtaken Citizens as the state’s largest property insurers. Universal reported 561,546 policies in Florida as of the end of September, while State Farm held 646,429 policies as of the end of August, according to data from state regulators.
Citizens’ current policy total is about 40% lower than its peak of 1.3 million policies in September 2023 — just months before Florida lawmakers passed reforms eliminating one-way attorney fees and discouraging excessive claims litigation. A smaller Citizens footprint indicates that more policyholders are returning to the private market as insurance premiums decline, signaling that both legislative changes and the state’s depopulation strategy are having an impact. Officials from Citizens and other insurers have said these trends point to a stabilizing market after years of turmoil.
A Citizens spokesperson described the updated numbers as “significant,” crediting the shift in part to roughly 199,000 takeouts completed in October.
Policyholder participation in takeout programs also appears to have increased recently. During the first half of the year, the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) approved takeout offers for about 1.2 million Citizens policies, though only 200,000 of those offers were accepted by policyholders, according to OIR data.
In contrast, this fall, nine private insurers were approved for 368,947 takeouts, and more than half of those were completed in October, Citizens’ reports show. The largest portions of those transfers went to Slide Insurance and Manatee Insurance Exchange.
This development coincides with a broader trend of improving conditions across Florida’s insurance market. Just days earlier, Security First Insurance announced a statewide average homeowners rate decrease — one of the largest in three years — reinforcing signs of renewed market health.
Auto insurers are also seeing similar benefits from legislative reforms. State Farm recently revealed a roughly 10% reduction in average personal auto premiums in Florida — the latest in a series of rate cuts from the company this year.
In short, the numbers show real movement: Florida’s property insurance market is finally beginning to rebound, with Citizens shrinking and private carriers regaining strength.