Real estate
BY HANNAH NORTON
Texas has some of the nation’s highest home insurance costs, experts say
Zooming in
Texas lawmakers have considered some policy changes to help harden homes against disasters and boost regulatory oversight of the insurance industry. One proposed solution, which is backed by con- sumer advocacy groups and the insurance industry, is to create a state grant program to help Texans weather-proof their roofs and other elements of their homes. A version of that proposal would have required insurers to give discounts to policyholders who make approved upgrades to their homes, but it did not pass last legislative session. Consumer advocacy groups have urged lawmak- ers to enact limits on large insurance rate changes. The insurance industry has opposed that eort, warning that it could cause some insurers to reduce or end their coverage in Texas.
Everything is bigger in Texas—including homeowners insurance premiums. As Texas’ population grows, data shows residents are increasingly facing damaging storms that drive up home insurance rates and other housing costs. In recent years, home insurance premiums—the amount paid to an insurance company—have risen in Texas and other states. Texas’ average home insurance premium was $3,291 in 2024, according to the latest Texas Department of Insurance data available. Insurify, an insurance price comparison company, found that Texas had the nation’s fourth-highest home insurance premiums at the end of 2025. In recent years, Texas’ propensity for natural disasters has been “the No. 1 driver” behind insurance rate increases, said Rich Johnson, a spokesperson for the Insurance Council of Texas, the state’s property and casualty insurance trade association. Experts say inationary pressures have also driven up costs. Texas is home to virtually every type of natural disaster, including hurricanes, oods, tornadoes, hailstorms and wildres. Those disasters are getting more expensive year over year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. In 1980, Texas had two weather events resulting in over $1 billion each in losses, NOAA reported. In 2023, Texas saw 16 separate billion-dollar weather events, followed by 20 such events in 2024.
Average homeowners rate change The following chart displays how much insurance companies have changed their rates on average across the state in the last decade.
2016 2.6%
By the numbers
2017
14% of U.S. homes were uninsured in 2024.
4.8%
2018
Texas had the 10th highest rate of
5.9%
uninsured homes. 18% of the state’s more than 7 million homeowners went without insurance in 2024. SOURCE: U.S. CENSUS BUREAUCOMMUNITY IMPACT
2019
4.2%
2020
3.8%
Looking ahead
2021
5.9%
House and Senate lawmakers began holding hearings in April on hundreds of interim charges, which will shape their priorities when the 90th state legislative session begins in January. After the information- gathering hearings are complete, each legislative committee is required to release a report on their interim charges and policy recommendations late this year. “Lawmakers are going to denitely hear this loud [homeowner] perspective that home insurance a ordability is a crisis in our state,” Rep. Mihaela Plesa, D-Dallas, told Community Impact .
2022
10.8%
2023
21.1%
2024
18.7%
2025
4.3%
SOURCE: TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF INSURANCECOMMUNITY IMPACT
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