Mark Cuban: The No. 1 Issue That Will Impact Housing Affordability — Especially in Florida
Written by
Andrew Lisa
Edited by
Jenna Klaverweiden
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In the national discussion about out-of-reach housing prices, topics like interest rates, inflation, inventory, labor, supply chains and buyer sentiment tend to dominate the discourse.
However, at least one celebrity billionaire thinks those issues, consequential as they might be, are secondary to one that’s flying a little further under the radar — at least in the Sunshine State.
Affordable Housing Is Available, but Affordable Insurance Isn’t
As reported by Benzinga, on the social platform Bluesky, long-time “Shark Tank” judge Mark Cuban, whose net worth Forbes estimates at $5.7 billion, engaged with a Florida resident who commented on housing prices in her state.
“Here in Florida, we have a housing crisis of our own — developers are building affordable homes all around, but many are sitting empty because people can’t afford the necessary home insurance,” the Florida resident wrote.
In 2024, the National Association of Realtors ranked Florida as the state with the most expensive home insurance rates in the country by far. The average homeowner paid $10,996 last year, compared with $6,354 in No. 2 Louisiana.
The No. 1 Issue
Cuban concurred with the notion that insurance costs are at the heart of Florida’s affordable housing crisis and implied that any state with frequent and destructive storms should expect a similar future — and that politicians who want to keep their jobs should take the issue seriously.
“Home insurance in areas hit by repetitive disasters will be the number one housing affordability issue over the next four years. And possibly going into the midterms. More so than interest rates,” Cuban wrote in response.
A Multi-Front Financial War Drives Out Insurers and Homeowners Alike
In 2024, Newsweek chronicled an “exodus” out of Florida as soaring insurance costs have forced homeowners to pull up stakes and abandon their little slice of paradise.
A confluence of factors is driving the trend.
- Hurricanes — always a hallmark of life in Florida — have become more frequent, more destructive and more expensive as the peninsula’s surrounding waters continue to warm.
- The cost of reinsurance — a type of safety net backup coverage for insurance providers — has risen sharply as massive and multiple payouts become the norm.
- Hard-hit insurers are abandoning the state altogether, reducing competition and forcing premiums up.
As reported by WUSF, recent studies have found that as many as 1 in 5 Florida households are uninsured, underinsured or self-insured after rates rose by more than 70% in the last five years. The number of homeowners who can’t get private insurance coverage has soared by 400% in the same period.
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