Florida Insurance Rates Are Finally Falling. Brevard Didn't Get the Memo. Your Roof Can Fix That.

You have probably seen the headlines. In January 2026, Florida's insurance regulator approved the first Citizens Property Insurance rate decrease since 2015: an 8.7% average statewide cut, more than triple the 2.6% reduction Citizens itself asked for. The Governor's office announced that over 330,000 policyholders across all 67 counties will see decreases, with more than 150,000 getting cuts of 10% or better.

Here is what the headlines left out: Brevard County was not filed for a cut. It was filed for an increase.

This post walks through the actual county numbers, why Brevard landed on the wrong side of the statewide average, and the one variable in your premium you directly control: your roof.

The Headline: An 8.7% Statewide Cut

The numbers behind the announcement are real. Citizens' Board of Governors filed for a 2.6% average personal lines decrease in December 2025. The Office of Insurance Regulation reviewed the filing and approved something much deeper: an 8.7% average statewide decrease, effective at renewal starting in spring 2026.

The biggest winners are in South Florida, where litigation-driven costs were worst before the 2022 and 2023 reforms eliminated one-way attorney fees and assignment-of-benefits abuse. Broward policyholders average a 14.1% reduction. Miami-Dade averages 14.0%. Palm Beach averages 11.9%.

The private market is moving the same direction. Florida Peninsula filed an 8.2% reduction, Security First 8%, and Universal Property & Casualty 5.1%. Seventeen new insurance companies have entered Florida since the reforms passed, and Citizens has shrunk from 1.42 million policies at its 2023 peak to roughly 395,000, now the third-largest insurer in the state.

The Fine Print: What Was Filed for Brevard

Citizens publishes county-by-county estimates with its rate filing. Here is what the December 2025 filing recommended for Brevard County:

• Across all 38,028 Citizens personal lines policies in Brevard, the filing recommended an average increase of 6.5%, taking the average premium from $2,881 to $3,068.

• For the 26,079 standard homeowners (HO3) policies in Brevard, the recommended average increase was 8.6%, from $3,074 to $3,336.

• Only 4,235 of those 26,079 HO3 policies, about one in six, were slated for a decrease.

• The exceptions: Brevard condo unit policies (HO6) were recommended for a 9.0% average decrease, and dwelling fire policies (DP1/DP3) for a 1.8% decrease.

Two caveats, because precision matters. First, these are Citizens' recommended figures from the December filing. The regulator's final order cut deeper than the filing statewide, and your exact number lands at renewal. Second, this is Citizens data. Private carriers file their own rates, and several are cutting. But the direction of the Citizens filing tells you how the largest public dataset in the state prices Brevard risk right now: while the statewide average fell, Brevard was penciled in for an increase.

Why Brevard Missed the Cut

The savings behind the statewide cut come mostly from litigation reform, and litigation costs were not evenly distributed. The Governor's office was explicit that South Florida "experienced some of the highest litigation-driven insurance costs in the state," which is why it gets the largest reductions. Brevard never carried that litigation load, so Brevard premiums never carried as much litigation cost to remove.

Meanwhile, Citizens has spent years raising rates toward actuarially sound levels under the statutory glidepath, and coastal wind exposure in Brevard is priced like what it is: a barrier-island county facing the Atlantic. When the litigation discount washes out and the wind risk stays, a Space Coast policy has less room to fall.

You cannot move your house off the coast. What you can move is how your specific roof is rated.

The Part You Control: Your Roof

Whether an individual Brevard policy lands in the "decrease" pile or the "increase" pile is not random. Premiums are built from rating factors, and the roof drives several of the big ones. Three levers are available to you under current Florida law.

Lever 1: Wind mitigation credits

Florida law (FS 627.0629) requires residential insurers to offer premium credits for construction features that reduce wind damage: how your roof deck is attached, how the roof is tied to the walls, the roof shape, and whether there is a secondary water barrier. These credits are documented through a wind mitigation inspection on the state's standard form. If your inspection is outdated, or you re-roofed since it was done, you may be leaving verified credits unclaimed. We covered the 2026 inspection form changes in detail in an earlier post on our blog.

Lever 2: The 15-year roof rule

Since July 2022, Florida law (FS 627.7011) prohibits insurers from refusing to write or renew a homeowners policy solely because of roof age if the roof is under 15 years old. If your roof is 15 or older, you have the right to an inspection before an insurer can require replacement as a condition of coverage, and if that inspection shows five or more years of useful life remaining, roof age alone cannot be used against you. For the older housing stock in Cocoa, Titusville, and Merritt Island, that inspection is often the difference between keeping a policy and being pushed into a forced replacement on the insurer's timeline instead of yours.

Lever 3: A documented, code-current roof when you shop

Seventeen new carriers and falling private-market rates mean shopping actually works again, but underwriters price what they can verify. A recent permitted roof, a current wind mitigation report, and documentation of the deck attachment and secondary water barrier make your home a risk a private carrier wants. An aging roof with no paperwork makes you a risk they surcharge or decline. If a replacement is on the horizon anyway, hurricane season is the wrong time to wait and the right time to plan; financing options are on our financing page.

What to Do Before Your Renewal

1. Pull your renewal date and current declarations page. Know your number before the new one arrives.

2. Find your wind mitigation report. If it is more than five years old, or predates your current roof, schedule a new inspection.

3. Confirm your roof's permitted age. Your county permit history, not your memory, is what underwriters use.

4. If your roof is 15 or older, get it inspected before your insurer asks. Five or more years of documented useful life protects your renewal under FS 627.7011.

5. Get two or three private-market quotes at renewal. The carriers cutting rates are competing for well-documented homes.

6. Fix small roof problems now and keep the paperwork. Documented repairs by a licensed contractor read very differently to an underwriter than deferred maintenance.

Where Local Roofing Experts Fits In

We are the roof side of this equation. Local Roofing Experts inspects, repairs, and replaces residential and commercial roofs across Rockledge, Cocoa, Merritt Island, Titusville, Melbourne, and all of Brevard County, and we document the work the way underwriters and wind mitigation inspectors need to see it. If your renewal came in higher while the rest of the state got a cut, start with the roof.

Call (321) 487-5424 for an inspection, or reach us through our contact page. Check our reviews, verify our license (CCC1335645) yourself on MyFloridaLicense.com, and see our full roofing services. Licensed, local, and on the Space Coast, where the statewide average was never the whole story.