Home and condo insurance in Boca Raton, FL, outside the high-velocity hurricane zone.

A city of houses and towers, built before today’s code

Boca Raton is in southern Palm Beach County. The 2020–2024 Census estimates count about 49,100 housing units. About 42% are detached houses and about 8% are attached houses, so single-family homes are roughly half the stock. About 26% of units are in buildings with 50 or more apartments, mostly along the Intracoastal and east of Federal Highway (US-1). Of the occupied homes, about 66% are owner-occupied. About 4,700 units, roughly one in ten, were vacant for seasonal or occasional use. About one in four residents is 65 or older. Census table C16001 counts about 2,600 people age 5 and older who speak Russian, Polish or another Slavic language at home, about 2.7% of that age group. The line is not a count of Russian alone.

The median year built is 1983. About 69% of units were built before 1990. The 1970s and the 1980s together are about half of today’s stock: the HOA and country-club communities west of I-95, and a large share of the condominiums. Some of those communities are age-restricted. The restriction lives in the community documents, not in the Census, and it does not change the insurance form by itself. A policy still has to name the real address and say how the home is occupied.

Palm Beach County is not in the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone. Section 1620 of the Florida Building Code limits that zone to Miami-Dade and Broward. In Boca Raton the design wind speed comes from the code’s wind maps, and it changes with the parcel and the risk category. Palm Beach County publishes those maps. The county states that all of unincorporated Palm Beach County is in the wind-borne debris region. Boca Raton is a city, so the map for the lot is the document that matters. This page does not print one miles-per-hour figure for every house.

Wind credits without the HVHZ rulebook

A wind-mitigation inspection uses form OIR-B1-1802. It records the roof covering, roof deck attachment, roof-to-wall connection, roof shape, secondary water resistance and opening protection. Florida Statute 627.0629 requires insurers to reflect the credits for the features the form actually documents. In Miami-Dade and Broward, opening protection is tied to the High-Velocity Hurricane Zone product rules. Boca Raton is outside that zone. Florida product approval, not a Miami-Dade Notice of Acceptance, is the usual path for impact openings here, and the design pressure still depends on the wind-speed contour for that lot. If you have the inspection, send it with the declarations page. If you do not, the missing form is itself a gap we can name. My Safe Florida Home is a separate state program of inspections and grants. A grant is not automatic, and this page does not promise one.

Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 put hurricane-force wind on this coast. The National Hurricane Center found stronger wind on upper floors of South Florida high-rises than at the standard 10-meter measurement. During Hurricane Irma in 2017, a station in Boca Raton measured a sustained wind of 51 mph and a gust of 79 mph. The National Weather Service reported Category 1 gusts, about 80 to 90 mph, across Palm Beach County. That is not a reason to invent a design speed for your house. It is a reason to read the deductible and the roof settlement on the policy you have. Hurricane deductibles are offered at $500 or at 2%, 5% or 10% of the dwelling limit and apply once per calendar year. Two hurricanes in the same year do not reset it. For policies issued or renewed since July 1, 2022, an insurer cannot refuse coverage only because the roof is under 15 years old. An older roof can still be settled on actual cash value if that is what the form says.

Condos, HOAs and the assessment that insurance may not pay

About a quarter of Boca Raton’s units are in buildings of 50 or more. Florida Statute 718.111(11) requires the association to insure the building and to exclude what is inside the unit: floor, wall and ceiling coverings, electrical fixtures, appliances, water heaters, built-in cabinets and countertops, window treatments and personal property. That interior is an HO-6. Statute 627.714 requires at least $2,000 of loss-assessment coverage for assessments an owner is charged for a loss to property the association insures. Two thousand dollars is a floor. A hurricane deductible on the master policy, split across the owners, can be larger. Ask what your form actually pays.

Residential condominium and co-op buildings of three or more habitable stories need a milestone inspection, generally when the building turns 30 and every 10 years after, or at 25 if the local building official requires the earlier date. They also need a structural integrity reserve study, a SIRS, at least every 10 years. The certificate of occupancy is the clock. A large share of Boca Raton’s multifamily stock dates from the 1970s and 1980s, so many buildings are already inside that schedule. An assessment to fund reserves or to pay for repairs the inspection required is generally not a loss-assessment claim. Loss-assessment coverage is for a covered property loss and, depending on the form, the association’s deductible. The same caution applies to a house in an HOA: a special assessment for the gate, the pool or the road is not a homeowners claim. Send the notice and the policy before anyone tells you it is covered.

Flood maps with two dates

No homeowners policy and no HO-6 covers flood, including storm surge. Palm Beach County’s flood-zone layer was revised on December 20, 2024. The county’s own guide still shows the prior countywide maps of October 5, 2017, and the Flood Insurance Study index shows that not every panel took the 2024 date. Two lots in the same community can sit on different panel dates. Coastal lots along the Intracoastal and the barrier island are the obvious surge side. Inland canals and low streets in the HOA tracts still need the panel for that address, not a guess from the neighborhood name. An NFIP policy usually takes 30 days to start, unless it is tied to a loan closing. The program caps are $250,000 for the building and $100,000 for contents. Those caps are not a promise that your house will be rebuilt for that amount. We read what you have. We do not quote a price on this page.

Property claims have a clock. Notice of a new claim is generally due within one year of the date of loss, and a hurricane’s date of loss is landfall. Supplemental claims generally have 18 months. A loss-assessment claim has its own deadline tied to when the association assesses you. M&K Agency is family-owned, with a team of 12 and more than 5,000 clients across Florida. Send us your policy and we’ll check your coverage.

More for this area

• Car insurance in Boca Raton, FL
• Home and condo insurance in Palm Beach County
• Guide: if someone gets hurt at your home (liability and umbrella)
• Florida hurricane deductible, explained

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