Florida Homeowner Pressure by County: 2026 Data

Foreclosure filings come from the Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse, run by the Shimberg Center for Housing Studies at the University of Florida. It publishes monthly filing counts for every county, compiled from the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers, county clerk offices and the Office of the State Courts Administrator (OSCA). We downloaded the monthly table on October 21, 2026, when it ran through June 2026, and added January through June for 2026 and for 2025. The 67 county totals add up exactly to the clearinghouse’s statewide figures. OSCA’s own county table of mortgage foreclosure filings, in its annual Statistical Reference Guide, ends with the fiscal year that closed in June 2025, so we used the clearinghouse for the more recent months.

Probate filings come from chapter 6 of OSCA’s Trial Court Statistical Reference Guide for fiscal year 2024-25 (July 2024 through June 2025), the latest edition. We used the “Probate” column of its table of circuit probate filings by county, which counts estate-related petitions and leaves out the separate trust, guardianship and involuntary-commitment columns. The county figures add up to OSCA’s statewide total of 73,282.

Insurance figures come from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation’s monthly “Detail by County” reports for August 31, 2026, the latest posted on October 21, 2026, and August 31, 2025. We added Citizens’ two personal residential lines: multiperil policies and wind-only policies. Counties that do not appear in the wind-only section have no wind-only policies. Our county figures add up to the report totals.

We did not use private data vendors, surveys, listing data or our own transactions, and we did not calculate per-household rates.

Foreclosure filings: 22,191 statewide from January through June 2026, up 40.5% from 15,793 in the first half of 2025.

Probate filings: 73,282 statewide in fiscal year 2024-25, down 4.9% from 77,053 in 2023-24.

Citizens personal residential policies: 262,006 statewide on August 31, 2026, down 65.6% from 762,641 a year earlier. The count fell in every one of the 67 counties.

The most filings in the first half of 2026 were in Broward (1,952), Miami-Dade (1,868), Hillsborough (1,794), Palm Beach (1,313) and Polk (1,280), followed by Duval and Orange with 1,276 each and Lee with 1,067. The fewest were in Hamilton (0), Lafayette (2), Calhoun (4), Jefferson (6) and Glades (7).

Among counties with at least 100 filings in the first half of 2025, the largest increases were in Collier (up 119.4%, from 129 to 283), Charlotte (up 100.0%, from 136 to 272), Polk (up 91.6%, from 668 to 1,280), Osceola (up 83.0%, from 487 to 891) and Hernando (up 72.3%, from 177 to 305). Among the largest counties, Hillsborough rose 56.0% and Lee 67.8%.

Small counties show the biggest percentage swings because a handful of cases moves the figure. Union went from 1 filing to 9, Liberty from 3 to 8 and Gulf from 5 to 12. Read those changes with their counts beside them.

Filings fell in nine counties. The largest drop was in Okaloosa, down 47.7% from 174 to 91. Bay (191 to 188) and Putnam (60 to 55) also declined, as did six small counties: Calhoun, Hamilton, Holmes, Jefferson, Lafayette and Madison. Columbia and Wakulla were unchanged.

The three South Florida counties led the state in probate-category filings in fiscal year 2024-25: Miami-Dade with 5,828, Palm Beach with 5,093 and Broward with 4,663. Pinellas (3,934), Lee (3,467) and Hillsborough (3,332) followed.

The fewest were in Union (27), Liberty (34), Lafayette (36) and Calhoun (43). These are raw totals, so populous counties lead; a high count is not, by itself, a sign of unusual strain.

Citizens had the most personal residential policies in Miami-Dade (63,953), Broward (42,484), Palm Beach (22,325), Pinellas (20,426) and Monroe (11,325) at the end of August 2026. Calhoun, Hamilton and Liberty had the fewest, 34 each.

Among counties with at least 1,000 policies in August 2025, the steepest one-year drops were in Seminole (down 87.9%, from 8,480 to 1,023), Hillsborough (down 83.6%, from 34,061 to 5,603), Brevard (down 82.6%, from 35,883 to 6,256), Osceola (down 81.3%, from 9,565 to 1,793) and St. Lucie (down 80.2%, from 13,271 to 2,633). Pinellas fell 75.5%, from 83,396.

The smallest drops were in Monroe (down 32.0%, from 16,657) and Sumter (down 42.9%, from 1,034 to 590). Monroe, which covers the Florida Keys, had the fifth-largest Citizens count in the state.

Each column shows the period it covers, and the periods differ: foreclosure figures are for January through June 2026, probate figures are for the court fiscal year that ended in June 2025, and Citizens figures are a count on one day, August 31, 2026.

A foreclosure filing opens a court case. It is not a completed foreclosure or an auction. Cases can be dismissed, settled, brought current or ended by a sale of the home, so rising filings mean more homeowners are being taken to court, not that the same number of homes will be lost.

Probate filings count petitions, not estates or houses. One estate can produce several petitions, and many estates include no real estate at all.

A falling Citizens count does not say why policies left. One route is the state’s depopulation program, in which private insurers approved by the Office of Insurance Regulation offer to take over Citizens policies and each policyholder decides whether to accept. Policies can also leave for other reasons, such as a sale of the home or a switch to another insurer. The report does not say whether a homeowner’s coverage became cheaper or more expensive.

The columns are raw counts, not rates. Large counties will usually have larger numbers, so compare a county with its own past, or look at the percentage-change columns, rather than ranking small and large counties against each other.

These numbers describe counties, not any one household. If one of these pressures applies to you, the steps below are a place to start.

Behind on a mortgage: the court papers you were served give the deadline to respond. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development lists approved housing counseling agencies, and a Florida foreclosure attorney can review your case. Our Florida foreclosure timeline guide walks through each stage.

Inherited a house: before a sale can close, someone generally needs legal authority to sign, such as a personal representative appointed by the probate court. A Florida probate attorney can tell you which type of administration applies.

Citizens policyholder: read any take-out offer or renewal notice closely, compare it with your current coverage and premium, and talk to a licensed insurance agent before you accept or decline.

Thinking about selling: compare what you would net from listing with an agent and from a direct cash sale. Florida Cash For Home buys houses as-is across Florida, but if your home is in good shape and you have time, a listing may net you more. Get both numbers in writing before you decide.

Foreclosure filings: Florida Housing Data Clearinghouse, Shimberg Center for Housing Studies, University of Florida, “Foreclosure Filings, Monthly, 2019-2026,” compiled from the Florida Court Clerks & Comptrollers, county clerk offices and the Office of the State Courts Administrator. Monthly data through June 2026; downloaded October 21, 2026. flhousingdata.shimberg.ufl.edu/eviction-foreclosure

Probate filings: Office of the State Courts Administrator, Trial Court Statistical Reference Guide, FY 2024-25, chapter 6, “Circuit Probate Filings by Circuit/County and Category,” Probate column; FY 2023-24 edition for the prior-year statewide total. flcourts.gov/Data/trial-court-statistical-reference-guide

Citizens policies: Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, “Detail by County” (excludes takeouts), reported periods August 31, 2026 (run September 8, 2026) and August 31, 2025 (run September 9, 2025); personal residential multiperil plus wind-only policies in force. citizensfla.com/policies-in-force

For Broward, Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, our South Florida homeowner pressure report adds condominium milestone inspection findings and month-by-month detail.