Keeping up with rates From the cover
The conditions
The background
Home insurance rate changes
from 2020 to 2023
In Texas, 160 companies offer homeowners insurance policies as of 2025, which has remained steady since 2022 and is a 20% increase compared to a decade ago, according to the TDI. In 2023, insurance companies sold more than 8.7 million policies in Texas—up 35% from 2013. Still, insurance companies are struggling in Texas, according to filings from multiple insur- ance companies. In 2022, the San Antonio-based United States Army Automobile Association, or USAA, reported its first loss in its 102-year history, according to the insurer’s 2022 annual report. Other insurance companies are limiting the policies they write in Texas, filings show. “Our advice to consumers is to keep shopping,” TDI Communications Specialist Ben Gonzalez told Community Impact in an email. Texas insurance profitability Three times in the past decade, insurance companies in Texas paid out more money than they collected, resulting in a loss in certain years.
-1% or less
0% to 19%
20% to 39%
40% to 59%
60% to 80%
Since 2003, Texas has used a file-and-use system for home insurance, which allows insurance companies to issue higher rates without state approval so long as they notify the state, according to the Texas Department of Insurance, or TDI. These are referred to as “drive-by-filings,” said Ware Wendell, executive director of Texas Watch, which is an organization that monitors insurance practices in the state. “They could just slide an envelope across the desk at [Texas Department of Insurance] and tell them, ‘This is what we’re charging,’ and then put that into practice immediately,” he said. It’s incumbent upon the TDI to challenge hikes that don’t comply with state law, Wendell said. Of the more than 2,300 rate filings the TDI reviewed in 2024, none were disapproved, according to the TDI. From 2022 to 2023, insurance premiums in Texas increased by 23%, marking the highest rise in the nation in that timespan. This compared to the national average increase of 11%, according to a report from S&P Global, a company that specializes in information and analytics around finance and business. John Cobarruvias, a consumer advocate and Clear Lake homeowner, said he feels price increases from contractors are a cause for rising insurance costs for policyholders. Costs of repairing items such as roofs or other structural aspects of a home have risen over the past decade, he said, which in turn drives up the costs of insurance. “The roofing company charges that large amount, the insurance company pays that
No data available
Brazoria County: +24% Fort Bend County: +47% Galveston County: +24% Harris County: +28%
SOURCE: NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH/COMMUNITY IMPACT
large amount and then we get charged for it in their premiums,” he said. To help solve the issue, the state is looking at some bills in the ongoing legislative session, such as House Bill 2067 from Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Clear Lake, which would require insurers to provide a reason for when they decline, cancel or don’t renew a policy. Other help comes through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, or TWIA, which is a state- sponsored insurance provider for homeowners who can’t obtain a policy from private insurers. The number of polices written for homeowners in Brazoria and Galveston counties through TWIA has increased by at least 36% in each county dating back to 2019, according to TWIA data.
150% Years with a profit
Years with a loss
100%
50%
0%
*PERCENTAGES ARE BASED ON DIVIDING TOTAL EXPENSES BY REVENUE, RESULTING IN ANYTHING UNDER 100% BEING CONSIDERED PROFITABLE. SOURCE: AM BEST/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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