Flood insurance in Lee County, Florida
What existing NFIP policyholders here actually pay, how that compares with FEMA's full-risk price, the flood risk, the claims history, and how to pay less — every figure from public federal data, sourced and dated.
Policies as of July 31, 2026134,473 policy units in force
This is what existing single-family policies cost — not a quote. Your own premium depends on your building, coverage and elevation.
Check your address on FEMA's flood map →Your flood zone is set at your exact address and drives your price and whether coverage is required. Look it up first, then read your zone's row in "What does it cost in my flood zone?" below.
How much flood risk is here?
FEMA's National Risk Index rates Lee County's coastal flood risk Very High and inland flood risk Relatively High, from expected annual loss.
- Coastal flood riskVery High
- Coastal modeled annual loss (county)$13,828,929/yr (Very High, 80th national percentile)
- Inland flood riskRelatively High
- Inland modeled annual loss (county)$95,238,763/yr (Relatively High, 33rd national percentile)
Modeled annual loss is FEMA's estimate for the whole county (all buildings), not any one home's expected loss or premium, and not a flood probability.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective NRI 2023 release; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Am I required to carry it?
About 85.4% of the NFIP policy units in this dataset for Lee County are in mapped high-risk (A/V) zones — not 85.4% of all buildings. In a Special Flood Hazard Area a federally backed mortgage legally requires flood insurance.
- Zone AE106,240 policy units
- Zone X19,545 policy units
- Zone VE6,609 policy units
- Zone AH1,109 policy units
- Zone A396 policy units
- Zone A08134 policy units
- Zone A14120 policy units
- Zone C101 policy units
Zone mix by policy units (summed policyCount). Federal rule: a lender must require flood insurance on a building in a Special Flood Hazard Area with a federally backed loan (42 U.S.C. §4012a). This is the mix of existing policies, not of all buildings, and does not establish any one property's obligation.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How common is flood insurance here?
Lee County has about 31.3 NFIP flood policies for every 100 homes (134,473 policy units vs 430,243 housing units).
- NFIP policy units134,473
- Housing units430,243
- Policies per 100 homes31.3
A coverage-commonness proxy: policy units include some multi-unit and non-residential policies and exclude private flood insurance, so read it as how widespread NFIP coverage is here, not an exact share of households.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP + U.S. Census ACS 5-year 2023 (B25001), retrieved October 22, 2026.How much does it cost here?
Among existing single-family primary-residence NFIP policies in Lee County, the median annual cost is $1,658, with the middle half between $1,095 and $2,870 (53,965 policies). This is what current policyholders pay — a new policy on a different building can differ.
Each policy's annual cost (premium plus fees), single-family primary residences. The bar is the middle half (p25–p75); the orange line is FEMA's full-risk price.
Coverage in force: $30,382,837,000 of building and $4,840,208,000 of contents coverage across all Lee County policies.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
What does it cost in my flood zone?
Median annual cost of existing single-family policies by rated flood zone in Lee County — so you can read the row for your own zone (it's on your lender's determination).
| Flood zone | Median annual cost | Policies |
|---|---|---|
| Zone AE | $1,975 | 41,852 |
| Zone X | $1,086 | 10,836 |
| Zone AH | $1,010 | 493 |
| Zone VE | $3,578 | 297 |
| Zone A | $571 | 235 |
| Zone A08 | $1,998 | 94 |
| Zone C | $864 | 75 |
Zones with fewer than 50 priced single-family policies are omitted. Your own premium still depends on elevation and coverage.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How do current premiums compare with FEMA's full-risk price?
65.7% of 53,965 single-family policies pay less than FEMA's own full-risk price; the median full-risk premium is $3,461 versus the $1,658 actually charged.
- Median charged now$1,658
- Median full-risk price$3,461
- Pay below full risk65.7% of 53,965
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective July 31, 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
What do floods actually pay out here?
Between 1978 and 2026, Lee County had 48,496 paid NFIP flood claims totalling $3,950,590,715 — about 36.1 claims over that whole period for every 100 policies in force today (a cumulative tally, not an annual rate or a flood probability).
Orange bars are the three costliest years: 2022 ($3,385,377,866), 2024 ($419,597,083), 2017 ($65,890,296). Net building + contents payments by year of loss. Claims are matched by the claims dataset's county code, which may not exactly match a policy's property county.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective 1978–2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
How often is this county a flood disaster?
Lee County has had 24 distinct federal flood, hurricane or tropical-storm disaster declarations. The most recent:
- 2024 — Hurricane: Hurricane Milton
- 2024 — Hurricane: Hurricane Helene
- 2024 — Tropical Storm: Hurricane Debby
- 2023 — Hurricane: Hurricane Idalia
- 2022 — Hurricane: Hurricane Nicole
- 2022 — Hurricane: Hurricane Ian
Distinct storms by calendar year (one storm's emergency and major-disaster declarations are counted once), not individual declaration records.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective declarations through 2026; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Did the government pay homeowners after floods?
FEMA approved $504,287,808 in Individual & Households housing help to Lee County homeowners across 11 disasters, on 251,957 valid registrations.
FEMA Individual Assistance is disaster aid, usually capped and partial — separate from NFIP insurance and not a substitute for a policy.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective owner registrations by disaster; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Can I pay less than the sticker price?
7 of Lee County's 7 NFIP communities carry a Community Rating System discount that cuts every eligible policy's premium — up to 25% inside the high-risk zone (Fort Myers Beach, Town Of).
| Community | CRS class | High-risk discount | Other-area discount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Myers Beach, Town Of | 5 | 25% | 10% |
| Lee County* | 5 | 25% | 10% |
| Sanibel, City Of | 5 | 25% | 10% |
| Bonita Springs, City Of | 5 | 25% | 10% |
| Cape Coral, City Of | 5 | 25% | 10% |
| Estero, Village Of | 6 | 20% | 10% |
| Fort Myers, City Of | 6 | 20% | 10% |
The Community Rating System cuts NFIP premiums for every eligible policy in a community that does extra flood work. The discount shown is the community's rate; what share of its policies currently receive it is not in this data. Confirm with your agent.
Source: FEMA OpenFEMA. Data effective Community Status Book; retrieved October 22, 2026. This product uses the Federal Emergency Management Agency's OpenFEMA API, but is not endorsed by FEMA.
Reconciliation & data completeness
Our counts are checked against FEMA's official figure and the API's own totals.
In-force count: 134,473 policy units (from 90,224 API records; condo-association records carry more than one unit). FEMA's official count for 2026-07-31 was 132,012 — a 1.9% difference. Count reconciliation (not a snapshot proof): policies: 90224/90224 fetched; claims: 48496/48496 fetched.
What this data cannot tell you
- Your own premium — it depends on elevation, coverage and deductible. We show where existing policies fall.
- Private (non-NFIP) flood insurance prices.
- Your address's exact flood zone — use FEMA's Flood Map Service Center.
- Why premiums are rising — we show the gap to full-risk, not the cause.
- A year-over-year premium trend — the in-force snapshot holds only current-term policies, so a like-for-like multi-year index isn't possible from this data. A per-effective-year median is shown only where several years of policies exist.
Where would your premium fall?
Type your annual flood premium to see where it sits among Lee County's existing single-family policies. This is a comparison, not a quote.
Enter an amount above.