Homeowners insurance in Florida

[Karla Simmons]

I keep hearing that homeowners insurance is high in Florida because of hurricanes, which makes sense. I am assuming it is not high state-wide, but in the areas that have history of hurricane damage to homes. Is this true? Would somewhere inland such as Orlando or Gainesville have less expensive insurance? And can someone quantify what high insurance cost is? An example possibly? Such as a $300,000 home has annual or monthly premium of $X amount.

Thank you!

[Eric Starks]

I live in Orlando and my primary home is worth a little over $300K.  I switched from Securities First this year.  They were jacking up my insurance a rediculous amount each year.  I switched from them to State Farm and I now pay $1,265 which is less than half what I was paying for Securities First.  Now I get this rate by getting as many discounts as possible like, bundling home and auto, getting a wind mitigation inspection, going paperless, etc.  I should point out I switched from State Farm to Securities First years ago because State Farm kept raising my rates.  I guess in Florida, you just have to shop around every 5+ years to see who is offering the best rate.