Florida Mobile Home Insurance Market Still Struggling With Premiums, Coverage

Florida regulators have extended their supervision of American Mobile Insurance Exchange for another 120 days—for the sixth time in two years—suggesting that a runoff of the once-dominant carrier’s policies may be taking longer than expected in a still-stressed Florida mobile home market.

Insurance agents and others in the state agreed that, 24 months after St. Petersburg-headquartered American Mobile began cancelling policies, finding coverage for many mobile and manufactured homes remains difficult and eye-poppingly expensive.

“If it’s 1994 or newer, you have options. If it’s older, there really aren’t many,” said John Gardner, principal at Lee County Insurance agency and one of the top writers of mobile home coverage in the state.

Gardner noted that for one, seven-year-old mobile home in southwest Florida, for example, the premium for a policy that covers the purchase price was more expensive than coverage for a new unit that is built to stronger wind-resistant standards. The average mobile home annual premium in parts of southwest Florida is now about $5,000—more than that for some non-mobile, single-family dwellings in a comparable area, he said.

And many owners with newer mobile homes have elevated their units above flood levels, due to federal flood requirements or to allow parking underneath. But they have found that some carriers aren’t sure about how to write the elevation platform, which can cost thousands of dollars to build, Gardner said. One carrier agreed to cover the structures, but only if the home is four miles or more from the coast.

“Older mobile homes in Florida—it’s just tricky,” said the head of one Florida carrier. “You can’t make the math work.”

While reinsurance costs have declined for most lines of business, they haven’t for mobile homes, insurers said. Catastrophe modeling always seems to show significant losses, especially on older units.

Leadership with American Mobile could not be reached for comment about the OIR supervisory period extension. The exchange fell under supervision after its announced in a March 2024 bulletin that it was cancelling more than 1,100 policies as part of its plan to withdraw from the Florida market, due to AMIE’s financial condition. Gardner and the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation have noted that many policies from American Mobile have since been transitioned to American Traditions Insurance, based in Pinellas Park, Florida.

OIR data show that mobile home policy counts for American Traditions have, in fact, grown— but not dramatically. The carrier, part of the Jerger family of companies, has seen its mobile policies go from 61,822 in the first quarter of 2024, to more than 64,800 early this year.

American Mobile, whose attorney-in-fact is owned primarily by K2 Insurance Services, held some 8,600 mobile home policies in early 2024. Current policy numbers were not immediately available from OIR.

For some owners and agents struggling to find coverage, there’s always Florida’s state-created Citizens Property Insurance Corp. But the problem there is that Citizens, by law, requires flood insurance for most homeowner policies to be in place by January 2027. One flood insurance policy in low-lying Fort Myers and surrounding Lee County can cost as much as $11,000 for a mobile home—double the price of a wind policy, Gardner said.

“My prediction is that over 30% of the mobile homes with Citizens will voluntarily go without insurance, because of the flood insurance requirement,” he said.

Already, many of his clients have moved out of mobile units in southwest Florida, sometimes without a buyer; sometimes giving ownership to the mobile home park.

“There’s definitely a need for a market for older units and for a private flood insurance market on mobile homes,” Gardner added.

The good news is that a few carriers have said they are working on filings that could help expand mobile home coverage across south and central Florida, but have yet to file with OIR or go public with the policies.

Photo: A mobile home destroyed by Hurricane Ian in Fort Myers. (AdobeStock.)