Louisiana homeowners who lost their insurer to insolvency are trapped on Citizens at $12,000+/year -- triple their old premium -- with no private market alternative

Between 2020 and 2022, twelve insurance companies went insolvent in Louisiana and another 24 left the state, stranding tens of thousands of homeowners. These homeowners were forced onto Louisiana Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state's insurer of last resort, where the average annual premium is over $12,000 -- triple what many were paying with their previous private insurer. As of late 2025, more than 105,000 homeowners remain on Citizens, roughly three times the 35,000 the state considers a healthy residual market size. The financial burden is specific and crushing. A homeowner who was paying $3,500 per year with a private insurer that went insolvent in 2022 is now paying $12,000+ with Citizens. That is an additional $700 per month in housing costs, with no improvement in coverage. For homeowners on fixed incomes -- and Louisiana has one of the lowest median household incomes in the nation at roughly $55,000 -- this increase represents a devastating share of their budget. Many are choosing between insurance and other necessities. The insolvency mechanism itself compounds the injury. When a Louisiana insurer goes insolvent, the Louisiana Insurance Guaranty Association (LIGA) handles remaining claims, but there is a coverage gap during the transition. Homeowners whose insolvent insurer owed them a claim may wait months or years for resolution. Meanwhile, they must immediately secure new coverage to maintain their mortgage compliance. The only option in many cases is Citizens, at triple the cost, with no gap coverage for the transition period. This problem persists because Louisiana's insurance market was hollowed out by a specific sequence: Hurricanes Laura (2020), Delta (2020), Ida (2021), and excessive litigation costs drove insurers into insolvency or out of the state. The state has since enacted litigation reform and Citizens ended its 1.36% statewide assessment in April 2025, but rebuilding a competitive private market takes years. Seventeen new insurers have not yet entered Louisiana (as they have in Florida), leaving Citizens as the only option for over 100,000 households. The assessment mechanism also means that every property policyholder in Louisiana -- even those with private insurance -- was paying a surcharge for nearly 20 years after Katrina and Rita to fund Citizens' deficits.