The cost of homeowners insurance is going up in Texas, as it is across the country. Many factors can affect the cost, including the selected deductible, the quality of the insurance coverage and the value of the home. However, the premium increases that homeowners are experiencing in the last few years go beyond these factors. As it turns out, Texas is a very expensive place to live in insurance terms.
In the last five years, Texas has experienced losses from all five major catastrophes: hurricanes, wind and hail, floods, wildfires and earthquakes. Over the past sixty years, Texas has had the highest number of Federal Disaster Declarations.
In the DFW area, Hail storms and water damage make up the largest part of homeowners insurance claims.
Texas Department of Insurance compiled a report for 2017 that showed each insurance company’s premiums vs. how much they paid out in claims (all types of home insurance claims). When you total all insurance company’s homeowner premiums and subtract how much they paid in losses, you can easily see they lost money – a lot of money. From a purely financial standpoint they had to increase rates in order to simply survive. Want to check out how much insurance companies actually paid for homeowners losses in Texas? Check out the report here. Page 77.
According to the Texas Department of Insurance, the property insurance industry has been less profitable in Texas than it has been countrywide. (obviously, it wasn’t profitable at all as whole in 2017.) And the average property loss per homeowners policy in Texas is greater than the average premium in other states. Yikes!
Despite Texas being such a target for insurance loss, we do strive to find the best coverage for you at the lowest possible cost. It’s not the homeowners’ fault that there are so many claims here in Texas. We are just a high risk area.
Don’t despair if you have a high home insurance price, we still save people money on their home insurance every day! If your premium has recently increased and you would like to discuss what options you may have, please contact us.
