Homeowners Insurance in Gainesville, Florida

While the Florida Gators may have put Gainesville on the map nationwide, residents know the town has much more to offer. Surrounded by natural beauty and rich with local history, Gainesville has a diverse and unique blend of residents. This mix produces an interesting culture that provides plenty to do if you stick around for longer than a college football gameday weekend.

For homeowners, Gainesville also offers affordable home insurance rates. The city’s inland location reduces the effects of hurricanes, which helps to lower homeowners insurance costs. Let’s take a look at some Gainesville homeowners insurance rates and what determines them.

The average homeowners insurance rate in Gainesville is about $1,798 per year, which is comfortably below the state average in Florida.

Florida is one of the most expensive places in the nation for homeowners insurance, but Gainesville’s northern location means home insurance isn’t as costly there as in many cities in South Florida, where hurricanes are a significant threat.

Rates vary by company, though, and are affected by many factors. Look at some average premiums from some common carriers in Gainesville before we explain the nuances of calculating rates.

Averages are useful, but they don’t tell the whole story. The cost of your insurance heavily depends on your home’s value (via its replacement cost). Larger, more expensive properties cost more to insure than smaller, simpler ones. 

Other factor that are heavily considered in Florida are your home’s age and its wind mitigation features. Older homes with wind mitigation features that make the structure more resistant to damage caused by heavy winds will often see lower premiums than those without protection. 

Things like certain roof attachments or coverings, impact-resistant doors and windows, or water-resistant seals can help protect your home against damage caused by high winds or hurricanes, and may even save you some money on your premiums.

Homeowners insurance in Gainesville covers you from a variety of potential damage sources called perils. Perils range from natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes to mishaps like dog bites. Home insurance protects your property and your financial wellbeing. Your insurer can even step in to cover costs if someone injures themselves on your property and sues you. The different areas of home insurance and what they cover are as follows:

Coverage A, or dwelling coverage, covers your home’s structure and the things that help create it, including the fireplace, windows, doors, and flooring. 

Coverage B, or other structures coverage, covers structures on your property not attached to your house, such as a fence, detached garage, carport, or shed.

Coverage C, or personal property coverage, covers the personal belongings you keep inside or on your property, such as a TV, electronics, lawnmower, and clothes.

Coverage D, or loss of use coverage, reimburses you for additional living expenses if you’re forced to move from your home while it’s being rebuilt or repaired. 

Coverage E, or liability coverage, helps to pay for injuries or other property damages that the policyholder is found liable for, such as a broken bone or legal fees.

Coverage F, or medical payments coverage, is utilized to pay for small medical bills if someone was injured on your property, whether you’re at fault or not.

Unfortunately, homeowners rates have been on the rise throughout the state of Florida. The effects of recent hurricanes, which have done billions of dollars in damage, and a rising number of lawsuits against insurers have caused premium prices to trend upwards. On top of these trends, there are several factors in and out of a policyholder’s control that affect premiums, which include:

The effects of these factors can make determining the cost of a typical premium tricky. For those looking to buy in Gainesville, there are a few other region-specific concerns that affect Gainesville homeowners insurance.

Even though Gainesville is more than an hour inland, flooding has historically been an issue in this Florida city, with inches of flood water accumulating during mild storms, and severe storms bringing much more.. The low-lying wetlands and countless creeks around the city have caused drainage problems after heavy rains and storms throughout the years. You may have experienced this if you’ve tried to drive through Paynes Prairie on I-75 or US441 after a storm just to find water from the state park has submerged parts of the road!

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) creates maps that determine which areas of the country are prone to flooding. They break states up into sections and label them by risk, and insurance costs more in higher risk zones. Also, your mortgage lender may require you to buy flood insurance if you live in a high-risk zone. Flood insurance is separate from a standard homeowners policy.

Almost a quarter of Gainesville land (23%) is in a FEMA-designated flood zone, with places near bodies of water and Paynes Prairie being at special risk. According to FEMA, many of the areas have A or AE designations.

Northern and central Florida are some of the most sinkhole-prone regions in the country. In Gainesville, this is evident by the awesome Devil’s Millhopper Geological State Park. This is because the earth below the surface in this part of the state is largely limestone. This limestone gets dissolved by water underground that forms holes in the rock. The holes sometimes grow big enough to cause the land above them to collapse.

As a result, Florida has stricter laws than most states when it comes to sinkholes and insurance. Typically, homeowners insurance doesn’t deal with the land below your property; it focuses on the replacement cost of structures themselves. Florida is one of the few states in which insurance providers must cover “catastrophic ground cover collapse” as part of a normal homeowners plan. 

Basically, this is damage from an unexpected sinkhole (not preexisting) that causes structural damage to your home and makes it uninhabitable. If you want more protection from sinkholes, you can purchase sinkhole coverage as an add-on to your policy.

While central Florida is less prone to hurricanes than other parts of the state, they still present a problem for homeowners and insurance companies. Just in the last few years, Gainesville residents have had to deal with the effects of hurricanes Michael and Irma.

A standard homeowners plan covers damages from windstorms, which include tornadoes and hurricanes. Since hurricanes are relatively common in the state, homeowners in Gainesville have to pay a hurricane deductible, which acts differently than a standard homeowners insurance deductible, when a property is damaged by a hurricane. 

Hurricane deductibles are usually based on a percentage of dwelling coverage, with 2% and 5% being common options. While hurricane deductibles are usually higher than a homeowners insurance deductible, they are only applicable once per season. So, if your home is damaged by a hurricane twice in the same hurricane season, you would only pay the hurricane deductible the first time.

One of the best ways to save on insurance is to shop around and find a plan that fits your needs. Comparing rates is the only way to know which company has what you need at a price you can afford.

Clovered’s online quote engine allows you to compare policies from top providers and get a plan that suits you. Partnered with dozens of top insurance companies, Clovered can help you save by finding the right coverage.