Washington Post: Texas was once affordable. After hail and hurricanes, not anymore.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 22, 2025
Contact: contact@insurancefairnessproject.com
Washington Post: Texas was once affordable. After hail and hurricanes, not anymore.
Yesterday, Anna Phillips at the Washington Post reported on how Texas’s reputation for home affordability is being challenged by skyrocketing home insurance costs – fueled by more frequent weather disasters and inflation.
Excerpts:
[...] as bigger, more frequent storms pummel Texas, and inflation makes it more expensive to repair and rebuild homes, spiking property insurance costs are challenging the state’s perception of itself as an antidote to expensive coastal cities. Landlords are raising rents to adjust to the higher costs. Home buyers are struggling to find properties they can afford. And longtime residents are facing higher monthly bills, making it more expensive to live in their homes.
Costs are rising across the state, which experiences almost every natural disaster, including wildfires, hurricanes, hailstorms and tornadoes. According to the Texas Department of Insurance, most homeowners don’t pay as much as Dempsey — the average premium was $2,803 in 2023, the most recent data available. But costs are climbing quickly. Premiums rose by nearly 19 percent last year and about 21 percent in 2023. [...]
After years of losses, insurance companies are limiting coverage, raising rates and pulling out of risky areas. [...] Insurance companies say the rate increases are justified by worsening inflation and growing risk. Rising ocean temperatures are producing stronger storms, researchers have found, and Texas’s growing population means that more people are living in harm’s way. In the early 2000s, the state experienced an average of 2.5 billion-dollar weather disasters per year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Over the past three years, the annual average has increased to 15.
Read the full story here.
“Rising insurance costs are making it more expensive for families to own a home, even in states with reputations for affordable housing like Texas,” said TJ Helmstetter, spokesperson for the Insurance Fairness Project. “American homeowners and renters simply can’t be the ones who have to pay for more storms, more hurricanes, more fires, and more damage all on their own. Insurance companies must deliver on their promises to policyholders, and governments need to step up and protect consumers from the rising costs.”
A recent report by the Consumer Federation of America found that Texas experienced a 27% increase in home insurance from 2021 to 2024, with an average annual premium of over between $4000 and $5500. Residents in Dallas and Housten also saw major increases of 32% and 25% respectively.
Notably, Texas is trying to pass legislation that restricts the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) from adopting rules based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) models, ratings, or standards (SB 495 and HB 3899). Public Citizen testimony in opposition to the bill noted the criteria’s role in the fair treatment of policyholders by insurance companies.
National Polling
The Insurance Fairness Project’s recent poll found that insurance is top of mind for American voters keenly aware of their vulnerability:
78% of voters are at least somewhat concerned about rising property insurance prices, with 40% saying they are “very concerned”;
66% are concerned about increasing extreme weather events;
74% have either been personally impacted by extreme weather or know someone else who has;
A majority of voters think the federal government and state governments are doing too little to protect consumers and hold insurance companies accountable.
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The Insurance Fairness Project is an information hub dedicated to offering insights into the home insurance crisis, exploring its drivers and highlighting solutions alongside issue experts and community advocates.
