Despite loud industry criticism of Crist's insurance reforms, private
market coverage for single-family homes from December 2006 to March 2007
grew 76,000 policies, including a 9,500-policy gain in Broward and Palm Beach
counties. That reverses a 253,000-policy slide that took place in Gov.
Jeb Bush's last year in office.

Florida taxpayers subsidized some of the growth. A $25 million state loan to Universal Property and Casualty translated into 16,000 new policies in such coastal places as Dade, Lee, Brevard and Escambia counties.

Even a silver lining has a dark cloud. Six counties, including Dade,
Hernando and Pinellas, continue to lose private coverage overall. The biggest
growth was in low-risk Leon County, which added 6,828 policies.

A perhaps unrelated note: which companies were writing new policies
was included in the rollout version of the Office of Insurance
Regulation's ShopAndCompareRates web site. That bit of information has
now been removed.