Home insurance rates climb From the cover
The conditions
The background
Home insurance rate changes
from 2020 to 2023
In Texas, 160 companies oer homeowners insurance policies, which 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 lings from multiple insur- ance companies. In 2022, the San Antonio-based United States Army Automobile Association, or USAA, reported the rst 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, lings show. “Our advice to consumers is to keep shopping,” TDI Communications Specialist Ben Gonzalez told Community Impact in an email. Texas insurance protability 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%
Danny Day, a Cypress-area homebuilder, was informed by his home insurer, Hippo, that they would no longer renew policies in Texas due to statewide exposure risk despite having no personal damage history or claims led. “It’s kind of outside of everybody’s control— you’ve got to have homeowners insurance, and you’ve got to pay property taxes—but these costs are, in Texas specically … getting extremely high,” he said. Texas has some of the highest home insurance premiums in the nation, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research. These rates and the resulting cost are leading many in the area to forgo home insurance altogether. Since 2003, Texas has used a le-and-use system for home insurance, which allows insurance companies to issue higher rates without state approval as long as they notify the state, according to the Texas Department of Insurance. “They could just slide an envelope across the desk at [the TDI] and tell them, ‘This is what we’re charging,’ and then put that into practice immediately,” said Ware Wendell, executive director of Texas Watch, which is an organization that monitors insurance practices in the state. 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 lings 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.
No data available
Brazoria County: +24% Fort Bend County: +47% Galveston County: +24% Harris County: +28%
SOURCE: NATIONAL BUREAU OF ECONOMIC RESEARCHCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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 nance and business. John Cobarruvias, a state consumer advocate, 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. To help solve the issue, the Texas Legislature recently passed a few bills, including House Bill 2067 from Rep. Dennis Paul, R-Clear Lake, which requires insurers to provide a reason for when they decline, cancel or don’t renew a policy.
150% Years with a prot
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 BESTCOMMUNITY IMPACT
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