Citizens' Collier personal policy count has halved in a year and Lee's is down 59 percent, and wind-only is now a third of what is left in Collier

Money & World

The Editorial Team · August 2, 2026

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What it changes

If you are a Collier or Lee homeowner still with Citizens, the useful reading of this report is not the headline decline but which of your neighbours left and which did not. Across the two counties the personal residential book went from 25,859 policies to 11,069 in twelve months, and the multiperil side did nearly all of that. Collier multiperil fell 58.1 percent and Lee multiperil fell 64.1 percent, while Collier wind-only fell 21.5 percent and Lee wind-only fell 30.6 percent. So wind-only, which is the coverage carried where a private carrier will write everything except the hurricane, has gone from 21.5 percent of Collier's Citizens book to 33.9 percent, and from 14.7 percent of Lee's to 24.9 percent. That is the shape of a market taking the policies it wants and leaving the coastal wind risk behind, and it lines up with the rate picture this desk reported on 20 July, in which Collier multiperil homeowner rates fell 6.0 percent while wind-only dwelling coverage rose 8.7 percent. The second number worth carrying is exposure, which is what Citizens would owe if everything insured were destroyed. Collier exposure fell 58.9 percent to $772.4 million and Lee exposure fell 68.9 percent to $1.88 billion, in both cases faster than the policy count fell, meaning the properties leaving carried more insured value than the ones staying. Collier is also the outlier in the direction most Collier owners will find least comfortable. Statewide the personal residential book fell 64.5 percent over the same year, to 273,684 policies, and Collier fell only 50.2 percent, so Collier is the stickier market rather than the better-served one. One honest qualifier on the wind-only point: the state's wind-only book fell 30.7 percent, so Lee's 30.6 percent is the statewide pattern exactly and only Collier's 21.5 percent stands apart. The practical step is small and it is not this report. Whether your own policy is one of the ones being offered to a private carrier arrives by mail as a takeout notice with a response deadline, and the figure to compare on that notice is the premium against the coverage, not the premium alone, because these county lines show wind and multiperil moving in opposite directions.

Citizens Property Insurance Corporation carried 2,894 personal residential policies in Collier County on 30 June and 8,175 in Lee County, according to the county report the corporation publishes each month. A year earlier the same two counties held 5,814 and 20,045.

That is a fall of 50.2 percent in Collier and 59.2 percent in Lee.

The multiperil book left and the wind-only book largely stayed

The report separates personal residential coverage into two lines, and they behaved very differently.

Multiperil policies, which cover a house against the ordinary run of perils as well as wind, fell from 4,565 to 1,914 in Collier and from 17,108 to 6,137 in Lee. Wind-only policies, written where another carrier covers everything except the hurricane, fell from 1,249 to 980 in Collier and from 2,937 to 2,038 in Lee.

The share arithmetic follows. Wind-only was 21.5 percent of Collier's Citizens personal book a year ago and is 33.9 percent now. In Lee it was 14.7 percent and is 24.9 percent.

Exposure fell faster than the policy count

Citizens reports total insured exposure alongside the counts, and in both counties it fell further than the number of policies did.

Collier exposure went from $1.877 billion to $772.4 million, a fall of 58.9 percent against a policy fall of 50.2 percent. Lee went from $6.037 billion to $1.881 billion, down 68.9 percent against a policy fall of 59.2 percent. Premium moved with it, from $17.6 million to $7.9 million in Collier and from $50.5 million to $21.4 million in Lee.

Against the state

Statewide the personal residential book fell from 769,845 policies to 273,684 over the same twelve months, a decline of 64.5 percent. Both Southwest Florida counties shrank more slowly than that, and Collier by a wide margin.

On the wind-only line the comparison is less flattering to the local story. The statewide wind-only book fell 30.7 percent, which is within a tenth of a point of Lee's 30.6 percent, so the pattern is a state pattern and Collier's 21.5 percent is the one figure here that stands apart from it.

Month to month the movement is slower and still in the same direction. Against the 31 May report, Collier lost 69 multiperil policies and 26 wind-only, and Lee lost 339 and 54.

Citizens remains the state's insurer of last resort. The report states counts, premium and exposure, and it offers no reason for any of these changes, so none is offered here.

Citizens' Collier personal policy count has halved in a year and Lee's is down 59 percent, and wind-only is now a third of what is left in Collier

The multiperil book left and the wind-only book largely stayed

Exposure fell faster than the policy count

Against the state

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