Homeowners insurance rates are going up across the nation, but despite more hurricanes striking the state, Florida remains relatively stable when it comes to rate hikes.

S&P Global just released an analysis of homeowners insurance rates across America and while there were stiff increases for many states, Florida fared well in comparison. The S&P report found Florida to have one of the smallest increases in homeowners insurance in the country as of December 2024 since 2019. But there was an increase.

“The states with the lowest calculated weighted average increase in 2024 were Nevada at 4.3%, Texas at 3.4% and Florida at 1%,” the S&P analysis concluded. “Overall, the Florida homeowners market has seen improvement following legal reforms in 2023.”

S&P used rate information sourced from owner-occupied rate filings submitted to the Federal Insurance Office and each state’s largest homeowner insurance underwriters. That does not include state-backed insurance organizations such as Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which is run by the state of Florida.

While Florida recorded a nominal increase in homeowner insurance rates in the past year, S&P analysts warned the full brunt and impact from hurricanes that hit the Sunshine State in 2024 haven’t really been factored in yet.

“Back-to-back costly hurricanes this past year may impede the recovery. According to information collected by the state’s regulator, estimated insured losses so far on residential properties are $2.39 billion from Hurricane Milton and $496.8 million Hurricane Helene, with total insured losses (in Florida) equaling $3.62 billion for Milton and $2.08 billion for Helene,” the S&P study found.

Still, Florida is well below rate increases for homeowners in other states. Some were 20-fold the rate increases seen in the Sunshine State.

“Five other states reflected premiums rising by more than 20% in 2024: Montana, Iowa, Minnesota, Utah and Washington,” S&P analysts said.

Indeed, Florida appears to be an outlier as most states in the country saw at least double-digit rate increases for homeowners insurance.

“The national calculated weighted average effective rate increase for homeowners insurance was 10.4% last year. That uptick followed a 12.7% rise in the previous year. In total, 33 states had double-digit calculated effective rate increases in 2024, with the largest calculated increase occurring in Nebraska at 22.7%,” the S&P report concluded.

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“It’s impossible, I can’t negotiate,” Mulino said Thursday. “The canal belongs to Panama.”

Yet Rubio said he will make clear Trump’s intent. In an interview Thursday with SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly, he said Trump’s desire to retake control of the Panama Canal is driven by legitimate national security interests stemming from growing concerns about Chinese activity and influence in Latin America.

“We’re going to address that topic,” he said. “The president’s been pretty clear he wants to administer the canal again. Obviously, the Panamanians are not big fans of that idea. That message has been brought very clear.”

Chinese investments in ports and other infrastructure and facilities at both the Pacific and Caribbean ends of the canal are a cause for major concern, leaving Panama and the critical shipping route vulnerable to China, he said.

Rubio added that “if China wanted to obstruct traffic in the Panama Canal, they could,” and that would be a violation of the 1977 treaty signed by former President Jimmy Carter under which the U.S. later ceded control.

Despite Mulino’s rejection of any negotiation over ownership, some believe Panama may be open to a compromise under which canal operations on both sides are taken away from the Hong Kong-based Hutchison Ports company that was given a 25-year no-bid extension to run them. An audit into the suitability of that extension is already under way and could lead to a rebidding process.

What is unclear is whether Trump would accept the transfer of the concession to an American or European firm as meeting his demands, which appear to cover more than just operations.

“In some ways, Trump is pushing on an open door,” said Ryan Berg, director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. “But it will depend on how his red lines are defined.”

“There’s been a lot of heavy rhetoric and it will be up Rubio to clarify it,” Berg said, adding that some kind of compromise was possible “but we’ll have to see if he’s really serious about taking it back. If that’s the case then nothing short of that will satisfy him.”

Rubio arrived in Panama on Saturday for meetings the following day with Mulino and the canal administrator. He will then travel to El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the Dominican Republic.

His arrival comes just a day after the U.S. resumed visa processing at its embassy in Bogota, Colombia, which had been shut down Sunday after the Colombian government refused to accept two planeloads of Colombian deportees from the United States.

Previous secretaries of state have often traveled abroad with so-called “deliverables” — assistance packages, new cooperation initiatives and the like — that they can announce at each stop. However, such as with Colombia, Rubio may only be able to bring limited relief from a U.S. freeze on foreign assistance that Trump ordered pending a review of all programs.

In Latin America, such programs have generally focused on policing, counternarcotics operations and efforts to stem illegal migration. Rubio has made provisions for certain programs offering life-saving assistance to be exempted from the funding pause, and waiver applications for programs in several of the countries he will be visiting are under review.

Among the countries for which waivers for certain programs have been submitted are Panama, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and its neighbor, Haiti. Although Rubio will not be traveling to Haiti, the State Department has already allowed some $41 million in support of an international peacekeeping force there to go ahead.

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Republished with permission of The Associated Press.