Can I Switch Homeowners Insurance If It’s Paid Through My Mortgage Escrow?

Yes. Your mortgage company doesn’t pick your insurance carrier, and switching doesn’t touch your loan. Last year, the people who did it saved real money over the people who didn’t.

What Does Switching Carriers Actually Save?

ICE released its September 2026 Mortgage Monitor yesterday, and it tracked what happened to homeowners who shopped their insurance against homeowners who stayed put. People who switched carriers over the past year paid 6.6 percent less on average, the largest saving ICE has recorded since it started tracking this measure in 2013. People who stayed with their existing carrier paid 10.4 percent more. That gap runs $440 a year, and it didn’t come from buying thinner coverage: deductibles for switchers actually fell 1.4 percent while coverage limits rose 7.3 percent.

Why Would My Payment Move If My Rate Never Did?

I wrote about this same mechanism a few days ago, when Citizens’ flood insurance mandate started showing up in people’s escrow accounts. Property insurance is the same story at a bigger scale: it sits inside your escrow account, not your interest rate, so a heavier premium shows up as a shortage letter and a higher payment even on a loan that never repriced.

Today’s number is why that keeps happening more than it used to. Property insurance for the average mortgaged homeowner nationally hit $209 a month in ICE’s release, 9.6 percent of the average payment and nearly 80 percent higher than where it stood at the start of 2020.

The growth is slowing. Premiums rose 8.7 percent year over year in the latest data, down from 11.4 percent at the start of this year and a peak of 15.1 percent at the end of 2024. A slower climb on a bigger number is still a bigger number.

Is the Increase Coming From Higher Rates or More Coverage?

Mostly coverage. ICE reports that coverage limits rose 5.5 percent and account for roughly two thirds of the past year’s increase. The cost per $1,000 of coverage itself rose about 3 percent. That’s more a rebuilding-cost story than a plain rate hike, and ICE calls it a reversal from 2024, when repricing drove most of the increase.

Does Every Market Look Like This?

No. ICE puts insurance at 24.3 percent of the average mortgage payment in New Orleans and 4.3 percent in San Jose. The steepest year-over-year increases in this release are Greenville, South Carolina at 15.8 percent, Honolulu at 14.7 percent and Minneapolis at 13.1 percent, with Sacramento and San Diego both near 12 percent. ICE ties a lot of the fastest increases to markets that took recent hurricanes, wildfires or hail. Miami, one of the two most expensive insurance markets in the country by ICE’s count, saw one of the smaller annual increases, though ICE didn’t publish an exact figure for it. Nothing in this release breaks out Florida statewide or Northeast Florida specifically, so those numbers don’t exist to quote here.

How Do I Switch When My Mortgage Company Pays the Bill?

You shop it the same way you would if you paid it yourself: get quotes, compare coverage, then tell your servicer once you’ve picked a new policy. Most servicers want a declarations page from the new carrier before they’ll update who gets paid out of escrow. What happens to the refund from your old policy, and how your servicer reworks the escrow number afterward, tends to vary by lender. That part’s worth a direct call to whoever services your loan rather than a guess.

In other news, something is on the ballot this November that a lot of Florida homeowners are going to hear about all fall and assume already applies to them.

Are Florida Property Taxes Going Down Next Year?

Not yet, and not for anyone behind on payments right now. Amendment 3 is on the November 3, 2026 ballot, it needs at least 60 percent plus one of the vote to pass, and if it passes, it doesn’t take effect until January 1, 2027.

What Would Amendment 3 Actually Change?

It would raise the homestead exemption for non-school property taxes from $50,000 to $150,000 in 2027 and $250,000 in 2028, adjusted for inflation starting in 2029. It would also cut the annual cap on assessment increases for non-homestead property, which covers rentals, second homes and commercial real estate, from 10 percent to 5 percent. The campaign says it would also direct local property tax revenue toward public safety, schools, infrastructure and government operations, and require the Legislature to build a process for counties and cities to raise the homestead exemption further.

Does It Affect School Taxes?

No. The expanded exemption applies only to non-school property taxes. The Legislature carved the K-12 portion out of the bill before passing it.

Who Supports Amendment 3 and Who’s Against It?

Florida Realtors launched a Vote Yes on 3 campaign and, per campaign finance records reported by News Service of Florida, put $10 million into the Yes on 3 political committee. Florida Realtors is the campaign’s largest funder and also the publisher behind the member-facing explanation of what the amendment does, which is worth knowing if you’re reading their summary of it. Vote No on 3, chaired by former Leon County Commissioner Bryan Desloge, has raised nearly $150,000, including $100,000 from the Florida Association of Special Districts, which represents the state’s 1,900 local taxing districts that fund fire control, mosquito control, hospitals and community development. A number of local officials, especially in rural areas, have said the amendment would cut into their ability to fund basic services.

What Does This Mean If I’m Behind Right Now?

The clock on the amendment and the clock on a missed payment don’t run together. The vote is in November, the earliest effective date is January 1, 2027, and a payment that’s late this month doesn’t wait for either one. Property taxes and insurance both ride in the same escrow account, which is part of why they end up tangled together in the same payment letter, and it can be hard to tell which one moved without asking.

Jacksonville is where I work, and distressed property is most of what comes across my desk. Happy to talk through where either of these lands for you.

JimArmstrong904@gmail.com or (904) 671-4161

Jim Armstrong, REALTOR® · Momentum Realty · SFR® (Short Sales and Foreclosure Resource) certified. This is general information, not legal, tax, or financial advice.

Momentum Realty is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender.