Reid Cameron is spending his holiday on home improvement projects in his Pinellas County house.

He’s sprucing up the place and getting it ready to put on the market because he says flood insurance premiums are driving him out.

"It's scary; (we're) not sure what to do, so we've decided to purchase a home out of the flood area and sell this home," Cameron said.

Cameron’s not the only one. For Sale signs line neighborhoods in flood zones.

A new law has caused flood insurance rates to skyrocket, and a lot of people aren't happy about it. That's overwhelmingly reflected in a new Bay News 9, Tampa Bay Times and AM 820 News Tampa Bay poll.

In fact, most respondents in the Pinellas and Hillsborough County poll -  65 percent - want the government to come up with a new way to make the flood insurance program financially sound. Only 13 percent said those in flood zones should pay the the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood rate hikes that started earlier this year.

Only about 25 percent thought they were affected by the new law; 59 percent said they weren't impacted and 16 percent weren't sure. Even so, only 15 of residents who said they weren't affected by the change supported keeping the rate hikes in place.

The majority of both those affected and not affected said the government should try another approach..

Benjamin Chang says he was aware of flooding problems when he moved in, but now he’s having a hard time getting answers about what will happen with his rates.

"It's concerning to a lot of people here," he said. "We like to live here. We like the lifestyle. But how can the average person stay in this neighborhood if we can't afford the insurance?"

The rate hikes Floridians are experiencing are outlandish. For instance, when someone buys an older home in a flood zone, the annual flood premium is jumping from a few thousands to $15,000 or more.

It's because of the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012, a law passed by Congress intended to keep the National Flood Insurance Program afloat. At the time, the NFIP was swamped with losses from Hurricane Katrina, forcing it to borrow nearly $18 billion from the U.S. Treasury.

To help the flood program's finances, FEMA is eliminating subsidies for older homes in flood-prone areas that have benefited from lower rates. But that means rates are increasing about 20 percent a year for many. In some cases, such as with a home sale, the subsidy is being stripped immediately.

U.S. Rep. Gus Bilirakis, R-Palm Harbor, recently held a town hall meeting on the topic. He says finding a solution is his top priority.

"At the very least, we need a delay so this affordability study can be conducted, FEMA has not done their job haven't implemented this bill correctly," Bilirakis said.

While homeowners wait for answers, they’re left questioning their next move.

Information from the Tampa Bay Times was included in this report.

Poll Results

Registered voter group
Number of respondents Maximum sampling error
All registered voters  625 +/- 3.9 ppts
Hillsborough County  325 +/- 5.4 ppts.
Pinellas County  300 +/- 5.7ppts.
Men  297 +/- 5.7 ppts.
Women 328 +/- 5.4 ppts.
Age 18-54  335 +/- 3.4 ppts.
Age 55-plus 86 +/- 5.8 ppts.

Methodology

  • The poll firm conducted 625 phone interviews with Pinellas and Hillsborough registered voters Dec. 12-17.
  • Maximum sampling error: plus or minus 3.9 percentage points.
  • Results include 445 landline interviews and 180 cell phone interviews.
  • The data were weighted to reflect age, race and gender within each county.
  • Surveys were administered by Braun Research, a national polling firm based in Princeton, NJ.