With last week’s special session on congressional redistricting completed, the Florida Legislature is set to re-convene again a week from tomorrow (May 12) to spend a couple of weeks finishing its work crafting a new state budget for the fiscal year that begins on July 1. After failing to reach a compromise during the March regular session, roughly half of the budget now has been agreed to through joint allocations that total about $52 billion. The total state budget will exceed $100 billion once federal and other funds are included but will be less than the current year’s $115 billion budget. The two chambers remain divided on several issues, including funding for K-12 schools, land conservation, and affordable housing programs.
Housing policy expert Kevin Erdmann and Ilana Blumsack of Americans for Prosperity share their views on housing cycles at the Florida Housing Solutions Summit, April 22, 2026. Courtesy, Florida Policy Project
How to create more affordable housing was the topic of the recent third-annual Florida Housing Solutions Summit, hosted by the Florida Policy Project. A panel discussion included suggestions to expand the use of ADUs – accessory dwelling units – such as an apartment above a home garage or a small grandma cottage on the same lot as the primary home. Smaller lot sizes could also help create more starter homes for Florida’s workforce. The average median sale price of a home in Florida ranges between $375,000 to $417,000, up from an average of $253,000 before the pandemic. You can read more in a post-summit article, Florida’s Broken Housing Ladder by the Project’s founder, former Senator Jeff Brandes. LMA was proud to be among the co-sponsors of this worthwhile event.
A new move by federal lenders that we reported in March is expected to help lower the costs of home and condo unit ownership in Florida. Danielle Blake of the Miami Association of Realtors told me on our recent Florida Insurance Roundup podcast that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s new guidelines allowing actual cash value (ACV) roof coverage on property insurance policies is going to reduce some current barriers to ownership, together with simplified rules for condominium units and condo association master policies. She also predicts the new guidelines will allow greater engagement between condo boards and Fannie and Freddie to see if past problems that have landed nearly 3,000 Florida properties on the so-called ‘mortgage blacklist’ have been resolved with the insurance changes – allowing the buildings and their individual units to qualify for federally-backed loans. We were joined by Karen Collins of the American Property Casualty Insurance Association, who noted this policy shift reflects growing recognition that roofs, particularly aging ones, are a primary driver of insurance losses and require a different underwriting approach than the rest of a home. It was a great conversation that you can listen to/read more here.
Up next: the growing damage and increasing threat from the double-whammy of Florida and Georgia wildfires and the ongoing drought, the insurance commissioner’s latest comments on AI and new steps his regulators are taking with insurance companies, the urgent call for more wind mitigation efforts, plus some clowns who dressed as a bear to rip-off an insurance company.
LMA Newsletter of 5-4-26
