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 $1,980 for a $150,000 house, $3,595 for a $300,000 home, and $5,160 for a $450,000 house. These premiums are comfortably below the state average of $3,325 per year for a $150,000 house, $6,026 for a $300,000 house and $8,644 for a $450,000 house.

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 many cities in south Florida where hurricanes are a significant threat. In fact, USA Today recently named Gainesville the best city to move to in Florida, due to its low cost of living and low unemployment rate, among other key factors. 

The premiums displayed in this article were obtained by the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation. They represent the most recent rate filings from the state’s largest insurers and can be utilized as an average of what Floridians can expect to pay for homeowners insurance each year. The example premiums are based on a policy for a Florida masonry home with a $500 non-hurricane deductible, a 2% hurricane deductible and no claims in the past three years.

While your home’s value will certainly be a vital factor in premium determination, another factor that’s heavily considered in Florida is 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.

Let’s check out the breakdown of wind mitigation considerations most insurers use when determining your premiums. 

As you can see from some of the average rates from insurance companies in Gainesville, Florida, the city comes in comfortably under the state average. At first glance, State Farm seems to be the cheapest provider in town. But, let’s take a closer look at the numbers by considering some important characteristics, like wind mitigation, that further determine premium prices. 

As you can see, properly updating your home for effective wind mitigation can greatly decrease your homeowners insurance rate and possibly your hurricane deductible — especially in Florida. To start, you’d have to get a wind mitigation inspection on your home.

State Farm and Tower Hill are the most affordable carriers in the city for $150,000 homes with wind mitigation according to the numbers above, with Citizens being the only other company that comes in with under $1,000 premiums on average.

Some areas of Gainesville are a little more pricey. In neighborhoods like Haile Plantation or Longleaf, it’s more common for a house to cost more than the median home price in Gainesville. So, here is a breakdown of a house with the same specifications as the one in the numbers above, but with a value of $300,000:

Florida’s booming real estate market means homes are getting more expensive, and, generally, the more you pay for a house, the more insurance you need. Thus, home insurance policies on larger, more expensive homes cost more since you need more coverage.

In Gainesville, State Farm, Tower Hill, and Citizens remain the most affordable carriers for $300,000 houses. Keep in mind that Citizens is designed to be an insurer of last resort, meaning you should only turn to them if you don’t have any suitable options in the private market. Citizens is owned by the state and provides more restrictive coverage than most of the private carriers in Florida.

People’s Trust, Universal Property, and Progressive are the most expensive on our list for $300,000 houses in Gainesville. While their average premiums are high in the area, you may qualify for discounts that keep your premiums low. 

Look how the numbers translate to homes in Gainesville worth $450,000:

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.