The savings will be greater on the windstorm portion of a homeowner's insurance bill, ranging from 26.7 percent in North Florida to 73.5 percent in a coastal section of Miami-Dade County.

For instance, areas closest to the waterfront in Miami Beach and sections of Broward County could see savings of 52.2 percent for single-family homes, 38.4 percent for condo units and 64.3 percent for mobile homes. Hialeah, well inland, could see savings of 32.2 percent.

In Broward, the savings on hurricane coverage could range from 35.6 percent to 41.4 percent, with the greater savings in eastern sections of the county including areas of Fort Lauderdale and Hollywood.

The savings will make good on the rate reductions promised by the massive insurance reform bill passed by the state Legislature in January.

''We set out to make sure that rate relief was substantial and broad-based,'' Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said at a press conference in Tallahassee announcing the expectations on these premium savings.

Private insurance companies have to file new rates, incorporating these savings, by March 15. They will be applied to new or renewed policies as of June 1.

Homeowners who renew their policies before June 1 will see the savings when they renew in 2008.

CITIZENS MARKET

Of course, in South Florida, there are few private insurers that offer windstorm coverage. Many homes are insured by Citizens Property Insurance, the state-run insurance pool. Of the 401,290 windstorm policies on its books, nearly 246,000 are in this region.

The rate expectations announced Thursday don't cover Citizens partly because Citizens doesn't buy reinsurance from the state. But Citizens officials will be meeting with McCarty in the next few days to go over its own potential savings. The insurer plans to have a set of reduced rates filed by March 15 as well.

Citizens officials, who were in Jacksonville for the company's monthly board of governors meeting, said they will make the lower rates retroactive to Jan. 1. That means all new or renewing policies will benefit from the reduced rates this year.

GOV. CRIST'S STANCE

''The good work the Legislature did during the special session has already had a very positive impact,'' Gov. Charlie Crist said, conceding that he is not sure the insurance crisis has been entirely solved.

Regulators warned that with all the insurers, homeowners' savings will vary dramatically, given the insurer, the location and age of a home and how much coverage is purchased.

McCarty noted that windstorm premiums account for 75 percent of a total premium in Miami-Dade County, while they are only 10 percent of the total bill in Tallahassee.

''This will ensure that a lot of money goes back to the people of Florida,'' said Robert Hunter, a former Texas insurance Commissioner and the current director of insurance for the Consumer Federation of America.

WORKING IT OUT

Hunter was hired by OIR, along with Paul Walther, an actuary and CEO of Reinsurance Directions, to work out the criteria needed for insurers to calculate their expected savings as they buy reinsurance at reduced rates from the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund.

Besides working on rate reductions, Citizens is already mailing refund checks to policyholders who paid the Jan. 1 rate increase that was rolled back by the new insurance bill.

Citizens' board of governors on Thursday also approved a business plan drawn up by the insurer for offering a complete homeowners policy ''with fire, theft and liability coverage'' in the state's designated windstorm area. That region runs generally east of Interstate 95 and U.S. 1 in South Florida.

The insurance law passed during the special session in January gave Citizens permission to expand the coverage it offers in the windstorm area. Its business plan, required by the new law, must be approved by the Legislature and the Financial Services Commission, which is made of the governor and the Florida cabinet.

Citizens noted that this expansion won't really present new operations for the company since it already offers a multi-peril coverage to 900,000 of 1.3 million policyholders.

NO. 1 INSURER

The company, created by the merger of the old windstorm pool and the joint underwriting association, is now the largest insurer of homes, condos, apartments and mobile homes in Florida. It had $418 billion in exposure as of Jan. 31.

Citizens also will expand its commercial coverage. It expects to pick up the commercial JUA coverage by June 1.

Initially, it will offer the same coverage. But it plans to offer broader commercial coverage, including builders risk and loss of income and business interruption insurance, by Sept. 1. It will offer up to $10 million of coverage.

''That's really good news that Citizens will be offering expanded coverage, possibly including rent loss because of hurricanes,'' said Michael Brown, managing director of Meridian Capital Group in Boca Raton.

Brown, who works in commercial property finance, has seen property deals fall apart because of the lack of insurance coverage.