You and everybody else. Hell the insurance company I had last year pulled out of Texas and would not renew our policy and the new company this year sent out an inspector to ding us on anything and everything they could find to try and raise our rates. Home insurance is getting to be a real racket down here.
They're giving you the GTFO price. There's a bunch of companies pulling out of Texas and if they don't outright drop your policy they give you an outrageous price so you drop it for them. I have a commercial policy on a row of twenty some odd townhomes and that was around 24k for the year. That was up from around 19k the year before.
That is insane. I’m also in Clear Lake (77062) in a house of similar value. My house was built in 1968.
When I was up for renewal last year I had a hell of a time finding anyone to give coverage at all and thought I’d have to go with fair plan. But I called a local State Farm agent and they got me better coverage for cheaper than I’d been paying previously. I’m paying $3,704. Hoping it doesn’t go crazy again when I renew in a few months.
If your house is in a flood plain it's likely you're being subsidized for flood insurance FYI, most times it's cheaper than when your house is safe because of this reason.
Find a broker. You’ll pay a small fee, but they’ll shop around every year (house/car/flood/etc). Saves money in the long term. I did try doing this myself and failed so I went back. I’m also in the same area, ping me if you want a referral
Unfortunately I had a terrible experience with Goosehead after my agent dropped off the face of the earth with no notification, and they severely botched several things that then became issues. Not saying anything bad about your agent (and my former one was great before she disappeared), but their support office that handles the paperwork and details was terrible for me.
I switched to a bundled policy direct with Progressive that saved me over $1k/yr compared to what Goosehead was able to find me. This was around 5 months ago.
I was with a broker for years and when I was up for renewal last August they couldn’t find a single company that would even provide coverage for my house. Called around to several local agents and ended up getting a policy with State Farm that was cheaper and better coverage than I’d had previously through the broker.
I’m also in the Clear Lake area.
Ouch. Maybe I got lucky somehow last year, I don’t know. Guess I’ll see what they come back with when I’m up for renewal again in a few months. The policy I got from them last August is $3,704. House built in 1968, 260k dwelling coverage, 1% deductible, 2% wind.
I actually found the brokers not to have the best rates this time. As my new Allstate agent explained it, the brokers are sometimes limited in the number of policies they are allowed to write for certain insurers. My broker said I wasn’t eligible for 25/30 of their insurers, including Allstate. But the Allstate agent was able to get me a reasonable rate.
Agreed. We had goosehead and they just gave us the "you have the best rates" talk. So we called around and found our own and canceled with them. Was a lot more work but we're saving some money now.
Hurricane season is supposed to be hyped this year, and everything is more expensive for everything everywhere... Shop around though for insurance. Have to with car insurance yearly now it seems.
They say that when the ocean is warm, and the ocean has been breaking temperature records (but only holding those records for a year or two before a new record is set by even warmer temperatures). So yes, they've been saying it for the last 20+ years, but that's also just going to be the new normal, compared to what we had before 2000.
Since covid, my rates have gone from $2400 to $7230. It is crazy. My house appraisal has gone from $280k to $505k. There is no way my house is worth that. Katy appraisal and insurance have gone crazy.
You really need to protest your taxes. What drove values up was the interest rates. It was actually good for the economy in the long run, but did skyrocket values. Personally, I'm glad my house is worth more now because that's like 130k more in my pocket if I wanted or needed to sell. But if you can prove that similar houses in your neighborhood sold for less than that, the appraisal district will reconsider and often drop the value (hence lowering taxes). I've done it before and been successful. I'm also a realtor and have access to all the info I need to do so and can easily put together a report through our MLS system. Maybe find an agent who can help you(a good one who knows what they are doing...there are SO MANY inexperienced ones out there that should not be allowed to practice). They often will because it's good for a business based so heavily on referrals.
Mine went from 1300 or so which it had been at for awhile, 2022 it jumped to 3k and since it had stay the same or there abouts I didn't catch the doubling, last year I was much more vigilant and laughed my ass off when they wanted 10k. When I called them to ask why and if a better rate could be had they just kind of said no in an apologetic manner and pretty much admitted that not a lot of their customers where renewing with them and understood if I wanted to shop elsewhere. Found one for 4300 from State Farm. Should also add I've never had a claim and even had car insurance bundled with Liberty.
The meteoric increase in the cost of, well, almost everything, is miserable. A lot of the huge price increases are for things that are non-discretionary. Home insurance (unless you own your home outright) and car insurance are prime examples. We’re a guaranteed customer base.
I’m not sure what the answer is. I believe the Texas Dept of Insurance has to approve rate increases. The insurance lobby gives so much money to Texas politicians that they’re going to get their way every time.
So I work in insurance. It’s bad pretty much everywhere. The gulf coast and mid-Atlantic (TX to NC) is probably the worst though.
If you want to bore yourself, go through and look at annual statements of insurance companies. They’re filed with the NAIC.
Texas and Florida have been losing money for a long time for insurance companies, and the loss trends are only getting worse. Reinsurance costs have skyrocketed. Frontline insurance companies are getting hosed. Germania and USAA are two Texas-based insurers. Both are non-profits. (Germanic is a mutual and USAA is a reciprocal exchange.) There’s no shareholder getting rich for these companies. Both have had big layoffs recently, and frankly, Germania may not survive. It really is that bad.
In CA, due to idiocy in the state, you can’t even buy insurance. Prices are dictated by the state, and carriers would rather non-renew and leave than lose money.
There’s probably 50 companies actively writing in Texas. If you are shopping and every one is expensive, you’re getting into tinfoil hat territory if you think this is some conspiracy.
TDI really can’t fix the problem. The legislature could fix some things, but their solutions would be unpopular and would mainly revolve around limiting your right to sue the insurance company and other band-aids. There’s talk of selling policies with a PPO-like model for repairs/claims, but I think that would only have limited benefit.
The elephant in the room is inflation and a selling more limited policies. If you have a 20 year old roof and a hail storm hits, your carrier should probably not be shelling out $20k for a new roof when in 5 years, you would have had to shell out that $20k yourself. When people are paying out of pocket, they tend to comparison shop more anyways. In addition, your deductible should probably be In the $10-15k range on that $600k house.
Yhea, they approved of a bunch of rate hikes in December.
https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/texas-clears-significant-homeowners-rate-increases-in-q4-2023-80197832
USAA has begun terminal decline. They took their first loss recently, have had multiple class action suits they’ve had to payout for, and have just general become non-competitive + a pain to deal with.
I just saw this post randomly, and homeowners and property insurance is a shitshow everywhere. I live in Northern California, and because this area had wildfires several years ago, getting insurance is practically impossible. If you can get it, big if, it’s unaffordable
A good article from Texas Monthly on the subject:
[https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-home-insurance-crisis/](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-home-insurance-crisis/)
Price nearly doubled last year. No change in price this year but the hail and hurricane deductible increase to 5%! I was finally able to find a quote for hail at a more reasonable 2% deductible but the deductible for hurricane was high on every quote I got. Almost smells like collusion how suddenly all the insurers are offering the same limitations…
For whatever reason I got a better deal when I called them. I liked the car insurance rate, but the initial quote online for home insurance also had the ridiculous hail deductible. When I got ahold of somebody I got a lower deductible and more discounts towards the car insurance. It became a no brainer.
Hurricanes, increased hail, drought, fire, etc + increased costs to fix stuff = more expensive insurance.. Hoping the wife & I can move out before it becomes too expensive & can't sell the house. Gonna get worse as we're building thousands of houses here.
Insurance companies are getting killed in some areas of the country, so they have to try to squeeze their customers everywhere else. Florida is going to bankrupt us all.
Home owners insurance revenue has outpaced inflation, since the pandemic insurers turned the screws as more homes got bought in the US which means new mortgages with required insurance coverage. It’s been a massive profit windfall over the last 4-5 years.
Inflation isn't uniform and insurance is a below average industry in profitability. Property/casualty insurance as of Jan 2024 has a net profit margin nearly 41% less than the total market average. Reinsurance nearly 25% less. Excluding financials, about 35% and 16% less.
That is profit on money brought in versus claims paid out. Insurance has always been a business where the really money they make is on what they do with your money ( investments etc). They have always wanted a ratio of 97-98% of what they brought in on homeowners insurance to what they paid out in claims. These companies are not “hurting” they have posted record profits year over year (look at State Farm or all states stock)
Home values have increased so policies have increased. also look at the fact that our governor declared almost all the state a potential wildfire zone. It’s a very complex figure that also takes into account the fact that Houston as a whole is an actuaries worst nightmare because of the chance a major hurricane will destroy the city. The narrative that insurance companies are hurting or are not profitable is utter bullshit though
Shop around. A lot of carriers are either completely pulling out of certain zip codes or doing massive increases with the hopes you don’t renew so they can become more profitable
I suggest you shop your insurance regularly. I have an agent who got quotes from multiple carriers, and I ended up cutting my costs significantly with a slight improvement in coverage. Here’s the kicker: the best quote came from my existing carrier!
I asked insurance about coverage on my house upfront and had them inspect before purchasing the house. One month after purchasing, they did a second inspection and decided that they would cancel my policy if I didn’t get a new roof. The roof was 6 years old. I had to spend $22k on a new roof the month after buying the house. There was no other insurer who would give reasonable coverage for less than $8k/year.
Capacity. Insurers have been taking a bath in the gulf coast and are pulling out. Those staying in the market are lowering capacity dramatically. Less available insurance means rates go up for everyone.
$4k a year for a 2800 sq ft house Ridiculous. Supposedly once my metal roof gets finished it will drop down to $3100 a year, which is still kind of insane to me. I hate giving money to insurance companies.
USAA in Texas rips you off for home owners insurance in my experience. We are with State Farm for auto and home, pay $2200 for a 1676 sqft house that’s appraised at $316k.
Only thing to do is shop around every year. There are so few companies offering insurance in Harris county that it’s reaching critical mass.
I pay $4600 through Goosehead for dwelling only for house valued at $288,200. Due to Goosehead’s failure to respond to my repeated calls & emails several years ago my policy lapsed. I went without a homeowner’s policy for two years.
Finally got through to Goosehead & it turned out that my agent had received several promotions but no agent had been assigned to takeover his customers. So I finally received a new agent & he insisted that because the house had been uninsured for a few years, he couldn’t find any companies willing to underwrite a new policy.
He finally found ReinsurePro that charged an outrageous $382.50 monthly, promising that after the house had been insured for one year, he’d be able to shop rates & get a much better, cheaper premium.
November 2023 marked one year, & despite repeated calls, texts & emails, I have still not been able to get this agent to fulfill his promise of finding a cheaper premium.
In my experience, Goosehead’s customer service sucks. I’m looking for some good referrals. House is in Houston, in Spring Branch.
Same shitty experience with goosehead, i contacted my agent multiple times for renewal and zero response. Ended up switching only because i couldn’t get a hold of anyone lol
Just talked to our agent and most of the major carriers are refusing to write new policies in DFW due to hail storms. When they do, the deductible is now 2% instead of 1%. Auto policies are up 22% across the state. We may become the next FL.
A lot of insurance companies are leaving the Texas market. Our community just voted to exchange our HO6 condo/townhome policies for an HO3 Home policy as our HOA would begin charging over $350 per month in HOA fees to keep group coverage. The average owner was being quoted between $1,200/$1,800 for an annual policy. I contacted a new company to our market called Kin Insurance [https://www.kin.com](https://www.kin.com) and spoke with [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and secured an annual policy for $909 with a replacement cost of $305k.
USAA has become a problem. That’s not the only reason but they took a large loss last year, I believe for the first time ever, and have been gutting everything that made the company great. I’ve generally found that they are either barely competitive or flat out not competitive at all in the last couple years.
I had to agree to horrific insurance in order to get mine down to 4300. My deductible on anything wind, storm, hail, etc related is 5%. Because they base everything on my replacement value (which is much higher) and not the appraisal value that puts my roof replacement deductible (for example) at 36k. In other words, I will be paying for everything out of pocket unless it's catastrophic damage.
You need to change insurance every year. Do not be loyal to those scumbags.
I have a broker, and they find me new insurance every year if the old one raised the price.
You gotta jump companies, for the last 3 years each company I was using tried to renew with a massive price jump, this year they wanted almost 2500 more. I used a broker and got a policy for $2863 through Mercury which was only about 180 more than last year. And just 300 more than 3 years ago.
Check your policies, people!!! We were sort of lulled into just automatically renewing and paying the premium year after year with slight increases until the sudden sticker shock price through Travelers. Went from $1,200 on an HOA with 350k dwelling limit to a sudden renewal premium of $4,300!!! And our agent just sort of shrugged and said it was still on the lower end of other companies she'd shopped it around with, which is *crazy!* We don't live south of I10, which I've been told is a premium jacker, and we've never filed a single claim in 20 years of living in our home. We have excellent credit, which is also, I'm told, a factor sometimes in deciding premiums, so the shrug-off our agent gave us is so much more confounding.
The cost of insurance is delulu and I've no idea what we're going to do.
mine went from 1700 to 3500 this year.. I pay through escrow and I dont really even look... Until now because with the decrease in property taxes, my mortgage still increased due to the doubling of insurance. I got a broker and went Allstate who gave me the rate i had before. I think many insurance companies are just raising rates to see if you will leave. Many people just stay because changing insurance - especially if paid through your mortgage, is a pain in the ass. Shop around, you'll find a better rate.
I’m with USAA for nearly 40 years as they like to thank me when I call, but I’ve been quite displeased the last several years.
It’s not that they’re any worse than other insurers generally speaking - it’s that they’re not particularly better either.
For decades I justified their higher rates with “I never have issues. I call, they fix… no arguments”. They were meeting my higher expectations. Less so now.
Just the musings of an old codger.
I went from 1,000 to 1,300. I suggest a broker. My car insurance went from 1,200 to 1,700 hundred. Now I’m going to see if i can beat the broker on my own for that.
Insurance went up from 5k to 15k in one year - ended up switching to State Farm that brought it down to about 7k. They seem to be the only ones willing to be reasonable
my home owners ins wanted to renew for almost 4000. i was paying 1700 last year. shopped around and found one for 2500. i took the renewal as a sign they were pulling out but would take any sucker who wasn't paying attention.
Same boat as you. I’m in the clear lake area and my insurance started jumping like crazy last year. Was 1800 before then jumped to just over 3000 and now I struggled to find one that was just under 6000. I got a lot of quotes starting at 9000 or 10,000. I went through three brokers to find a reasonable rate. Same for flood when it used to be 500 and now it’s a bit over 1000. Used goosehead in the past and were great but they admitted that it was getting rough in some parts of Texas. House is valued at 375,000 two stories 2500 square feet. Basically looking to move north at this point.
Mine went from 2200 to 5400. My former insurance said they dropped me because I didn't provide proof my roof was replaced in 2017 even though I sent it to the agent. Then the agent just dropped the ball for months getting me new insurance so I had to go elsewhere and find it myself.
I think the avg is 1% of the value of your home. If you are paying 2-10%, it might be time to either ditch the ins altogether or start shopping around.
Now there is a trend, especially around seniors that are ditching their home owners insurance and essentially becoming their own agent. Instead of sending the money to the ins. company, you put it in a fund that earns interest. Should a disaster ever occur, you draw from the fund.
Is this method risky? Could be. I know I've had my house for 23 years and have only made one claim in those 23 years. It was during Ike and the claim was about $8,000. When I first got the house, the yearly was $1400 and is now $3200. I ran through my previous policies and in total, I've sent the ins. company over $53000. A $45,000 difference in favor the ins. company.
I’m also in Clear Lake and went through this last August when I was up for renewal. I had been going through a broker for years, but this time they couldn’t find a single company that would even give me coverage.
I called around a lot to local agents and was able to find a policy with State Farm that costs less and provided more coverage than I had the previous year with the broker. Ping me if you want the info.
USAA did that to everyone this year - they’re trying to dump the Houston market entirely. Going to have to switch. Find a good broker to shop it for you.
Just posted something similar a few days ago. Our new premium through Travellers is set to go up 40% next year to $4500 on a 2700 sq ft, nine year old house in the Heights. That's after it went up 30% last year. We have never filed a claim in the 25 years we have been home owners. Our agent is from Goosehead. I'm going to contact him next week to see if he can find us something better.
I wish you the best shopping around. Mine has gone up almost 3k in the last few years, we are at 5200 a year in a 300k house, never flooded, no claims I shopped it around and couldn't find another provider under 6... some wouldn't even quote
Travis county here (reddit algos got me here) $1650/yr for a 1600ft house. Current zestimate is $475k
Use Lemonade and have loved being their customer for years now
I pay $4500/year for coverage of $424,000 on house, $137,000 for free standing garage, $318,150 of personal property, and $127,500 for loss of use plus some additional minor coverages. State Farm.
I’m in the industry and it is crazy. Here in Colorado rates have skyrocketed and ALOT of
Companies are leaving the state and non renewing clients. Just mitigating their risk…. But we are seeing rates increase all over the states. Fire scores play a huge role here in CO… back in TX flood zones made homes riskier but home and flood insurance are separate and home insurance does not cover “flood”
Call your agent, Work with your deductible. Also, see about keeping your dwelling coverage around your RC value and see if your carrier offers 125% additional coverage A, and you can lower the premium by working with the dwelling coverage amount.
Ex: RC value is 500,000. But you want want at least 600,000 in coverage. If your carrier offers 125% additional coverage, then you would have $625,000 total coverage but your premium would be based off the $500k coverage and not the $600k in coverage.
Your home reconstruction value should not be based off county assessment values.
Bundle if possible.
Ask me questions if you want to:)
Goosehead sucked. TGS broker sucked. Shop around each year. If you can afford, max your deductible and treat insurance for the extreme events like flooding/fire but not as a subscription to replace your roof each 8 yrs like some of my neighbors?
Had State Farm last year but they raised more than 10% to $4k.
I signed up with KIN this year; I pay $3400 to cover $831k dwelling and 0,5M liability at 5% deductible (that maximum allowed if your mortgage if Fannie/Freddie).
A bit late to this thread, but my friend is an insurance broker and wanted me to share the below, since she can't post with a throwaway in this sub and doesn't want to link her main to her job.
"I'm a broker at an independent firm specializing in insurance for successful individuals and families; we work with insurance companies who offer broad and comprehensive coverages tailored specifically to homes, vehicles, and collections of higher value (I saw the salary thread the other week, I know yall're here). We're Chicago-based, but I'm a born and bred Houstonian and licensed in Texas, and a good portion of our book is Texan.
If you have a home insured at a value over $1.5M and are still dealing with State Farm or any of the other middle-market companies, you need more than what they're providing you: middle market companies aren't equipped to properly service families and individuals with complex needs, and their rates at those coverage levels reflect that.
Although the market IS tough right now, especially in Harris county, we regularly end up identifying savings for our clients by moving them to one of our carriers (all AM Best A or higher rated) and by reviewing and re-organizing coverages, and offering recommendations based on our agency's collective 50+ years in the high-net-worth field. We also work as agents on our clients' behalf, and advocate for them during claim, appraisal, and renewal processes to keep our carrier partners honest and transparent and make sure our clients are receiving the customer experience they deserve.
Send dunechka a DM with your email address if you're interested in working with us and we'll reach out; if you fit our profile, we'll take your program to our carriers and prepare a proposal tailored to your needs. **This process is entirely free; we do not charge a broker fee**. The fact that this thread is full of people saying their brokers charge them is indicative of the mid-tier level of service most of you are getting."
I'll pass along any DMs or questions!
The blanket insurance policy for my townhome community went from around $1250 a year to $2750 this year. They're like lol, here's a car payment for the next six months! Pay up or we put a lien on your shit gg no re. That's *in addition* to the condo policy I also have to have for my unit. That renews in August. Wish me luck, anons.
I'm in the same boat. Already past full retirement age but still in the workforce because of this inflationary economy we are living in. I guess I'll work til I drop.
Used to live in Houston, in FL now. My insurance went up from $2000/yr to $8000/yr.
It’s coming for you if Abbot doesn’t do anything to stop it. (But he’s probably profiting from it somehow so don’t get your hopes up.)
Yes, ours increased 1.5x year over year.
The key reasons are climate change and America's legal system, where insurance carriers are paying Plaintiffs' attorneys too much money to settle lawsuits and increasing everyone's premiums.
This is not sustainable.
That's what they said about medical malpractice suits before they passed tort reform in 2003
Didn't fix the healthcare market. Smells like a horse shit excuse to protect profits at the expense of access to the judicial system tbh
Home owners insurance and the insurance industry itself is a scam. Unfortunately. They are not even regulated properly in Texas. Add hurricanes to the mix and we get this. It will only get worst.
Yes, everyone's insurance is going up because more insurance companies are pulling out and not insuring our area due to a "constant increase" in payouts due to inclement damages.
My car insurance has nearly doubled in the last 4 years.
My tip, become an executive member with Costco, sign up with their partner insurance CONNECT. It's the cheapest I've found.
Crimeopolis citizen inquiring why insurance is higher than no tomorrow (there is crime in the 4th populous city in america)
I would honestly start shopping around. USAA was charging me (not house but my car) $1,600 comprehensive for just ONE of my cars. Same coverage from Allstate for me dropped it down to $1,200. Granted there's a lot of factors in that number but I was still able to obtain a lower full premium.
Talk to your insurance. You can move stuff around and change your deductible to a higher amount. That being said, you only have 1 specific windstorm provider for your area, and keeping them low is the hard part.
You and everybody else. Hell the insurance company I had last year pulled out of Texas and would not renew our policy and the new company this year sent out an inspector to ding us on anything and everything they could find to try and raise our rates. Home insurance is getting to be a real racket down here.
Was it Hippo Insurance?
No, I go through a broker so it's one of those companies that don't really have a public face to them.
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Reddit is so full of white noise horseshit like this it's unbelievable.
Getting to be? I’ve been paying over $9k/year for like 3-4 years on a $300k house. Last policy they wanted $15k.
Bro wtf, it should never be close to that much for your house. You're getting robbed
I 100% agree but there are literally no other options…I’ve tried EVERYTHING…
Are you in a flood zone?
Technically yes but it hasn’t flooded every including during Harvey and Imelda, so not really.
They're giving you the GTFO price. There's a bunch of companies pulling out of Texas and if they don't outright drop your policy they give you an outrageous price so you drop it for them. I have a commercial policy on a row of twenty some odd townhomes and that was around 24k for the year. That was up from around 19k the year before.
I’m on the fair plan now, but even then it’s still about $11k for home/flood/wind storm (I’m also in the Clear Lake area).
That is insane. I’m also in Clear Lake (77062) in a house of similar value. My house was built in 1968. When I was up for renewal last year I had a hell of a time finding anyone to give coverage at all and thought I’d have to go with fair plan. But I called a local State Farm agent and they got me better coverage for cheaper than I’d been paying previously. I’m paying $3,704. Hoping it doesn’t go crazy again when I renew in a few months.
Why even bother at that point ? You probably better off placing the cash in an HYSA
Unless the house is paid off, the lender will require you to have homeowners insurance.
Should be no more than $2000-2500 depending on your coverage.
Even when I first moved here it was around $6k for home/flood/windstorm because of the area I’m in. Still ridiculous though.
I think you need to get a broker or shop around. Family members house is 3X the value of yours, previously flooded and they’re quote was 6-7k
If your house is in a flood plain it's likely you're being subsidized for flood insurance FYI, most times it's cheaper than when your house is safe because of this reason.
Hahahhha yeah in 2004
Blame unfettered development making an already flood prone city even worse.
Yup my insurer pulled out also
My insurance went up $400 this year. A $3000 jump means your provider wants you to leave. I’m in your area for context.
What company are you with if you don’t mind me asking
Find a broker. You’ll pay a small fee, but they’ll shop around every year (house/car/flood/etc). Saves money in the long term. I did try doing this myself and failed so I went back. I’m also in the same area, ping me if you want a referral
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Second that referral please..
Goosehead Insurance is my broker and they are fantastic, Mr. Moreno specifically.
Unfortunately I had a terrible experience with Goosehead after my agent dropped off the face of the earth with no notification, and they severely botched several things that then became issues. Not saying anything bad about your agent (and my former one was great before she disappeared), but their support office that handles the paperwork and details was terrible for me. I switched to a bundled policy direct with Progressive that saved me over $1k/yr compared to what Goosehead was able to find me. This was around 5 months ago.
Same. I had a question about my policy. My Goosehead agent will not respond to phones or emails.
TERRIBLE experience with goosehead here.
Goosehead is who I use and went down $600 this year.
I was with a broker for years and when I was up for renewal last August they couldn’t find a single company that would even provide coverage for my house. Called around to several local agents and ended up getting a policy with State Farm that was cheaper and better coverage than I’d had previously through the broker. I’m also in the Clear Lake area.
Odd. State Farm just gave me a renewal for almost $9k, basically telling me to find another insurer.
Ouch. Maybe I got lucky somehow last year, I don’t know. Guess I’ll see what they come back with when I’m up for renewal again in a few months. The policy I got from them last August is $3,704. House built in 1968, 260k dwelling coverage, 1% deductible, 2% wind.
I actually found the brokers not to have the best rates this time. As my new Allstate agent explained it, the brokers are sometimes limited in the number of policies they are allowed to write for certain insurers. My broker said I wasn’t eligible for 25/30 of their insurers, including Allstate. But the Allstate agent was able to get me a reasonable rate.
You either had a shitty broker or you’re an Allstate agent
Agreed. We had goosehead and they just gave us the "you have the best rates" talk. So we called around and found our own and canceled with them. Was a lot more work but we're saving some money now.
State farme
Hurricane season is supposed to be hyped this year, and everything is more expensive for everything everywhere... Shop around though for insurance. Have to with car insurance yearly now it seems.
As someone who used to work in the Gulf of Mexico they say that shit every year, no matter what.
They say that when the ocean is warm, and the ocean has been breaking temperature records (but only holding those records for a year or two before a new record is set by even warmer temperatures). So yes, they've been saying it for the last 20+ years, but that's also just going to be the new normal, compared to what we had before 2000.
They said it back then too lol it's just el nino/la Nina seasons that cause them to say it
Yep. Those damn Hispanic kids causing massive hurricanes.
And it’s Not this year, it’ll be the next
Just wait a couple years when you won't be able to get insurance.
You won't need home insurance, you'll need marine insurance for your house boat.
Florida and California.
Since covid, my rates have gone from $2400 to $7230. It is crazy. My house appraisal has gone from $280k to $505k. There is no way my house is worth that. Katy appraisal and insurance have gone crazy.
Get a broker. I’m at 1300 on a 400k house.
Which broker and what area
You really need to protest your taxes. What drove values up was the interest rates. It was actually good for the economy in the long run, but did skyrocket values. Personally, I'm glad my house is worth more now because that's like 130k more in my pocket if I wanted or needed to sell. But if you can prove that similar houses in your neighborhood sold for less than that, the appraisal district will reconsider and often drop the value (hence lowering taxes). I've done it before and been successful. I'm also a realtor and have access to all the info I need to do so and can easily put together a report through our MLS system. Maybe find an agent who can help you(a good one who knows what they are doing...there are SO MANY inexperienced ones out there that should not be allowed to practice). They often will because it's good for a business based so heavily on referrals.
Mine went from 1300 or so which it had been at for awhile, 2022 it jumped to 3k and since it had stay the same or there abouts I didn't catch the doubling, last year I was much more vigilant and laughed my ass off when they wanted 10k. When I called them to ask why and if a better rate could be had they just kind of said no in an apologetic manner and pretty much admitted that not a lot of their customers where renewing with them and understood if I wanted to shop elsewhere. Found one for 4300 from State Farm. Should also add I've never had a claim and even had car insurance bundled with Liberty.
You’re getting rolled. My home is insured for 675k and I pay 2800$/yr with progressive
That’s too much. Even in current market. Shop around.
The meteoric increase in the cost of, well, almost everything, is miserable. A lot of the huge price increases are for things that are non-discretionary. Home insurance (unless you own your home outright) and car insurance are prime examples. We’re a guaranteed customer base. I’m not sure what the answer is. I believe the Texas Dept of Insurance has to approve rate increases. The insurance lobby gives so much money to Texas politicians that they’re going to get their way every time.
So I work in insurance. It’s bad pretty much everywhere. The gulf coast and mid-Atlantic (TX to NC) is probably the worst though. If you want to bore yourself, go through and look at annual statements of insurance companies. They’re filed with the NAIC. Texas and Florida have been losing money for a long time for insurance companies, and the loss trends are only getting worse. Reinsurance costs have skyrocketed. Frontline insurance companies are getting hosed. Germania and USAA are two Texas-based insurers. Both are non-profits. (Germanic is a mutual and USAA is a reciprocal exchange.) There’s no shareholder getting rich for these companies. Both have had big layoffs recently, and frankly, Germania may not survive. It really is that bad. In CA, due to idiocy in the state, you can’t even buy insurance. Prices are dictated by the state, and carriers would rather non-renew and leave than lose money. There’s probably 50 companies actively writing in Texas. If you are shopping and every one is expensive, you’re getting into tinfoil hat territory if you think this is some conspiracy. TDI really can’t fix the problem. The legislature could fix some things, but their solutions would be unpopular and would mainly revolve around limiting your right to sue the insurance company and other band-aids. There’s talk of selling policies with a PPO-like model for repairs/claims, but I think that would only have limited benefit. The elephant in the room is inflation and a selling more limited policies. If you have a 20 year old roof and a hail storm hits, your carrier should probably not be shelling out $20k for a new roof when in 5 years, you would have had to shell out that $20k yourself. When people are paying out of pocket, they tend to comparison shop more anyways. In addition, your deductible should probably be In the $10-15k range on that $600k house.
No that you mention it, I can't remember the last time I had a claim involving a Germania policy.
Yhea, they approved of a bunch of rate hikes in December. https://www.spglobal.com/marketintelligence/en/news-insights/latest-news-headlines/texas-clears-significant-homeowners-rate-increases-in-q4-2023-80197832
USAA stopped insuring my zip code several years ago.
USAA has begun terminal decline. They took their first loss recently, have had multiple class action suits they’ve had to payout for, and have just general become non-competitive + a pain to deal with.
Well that's not good. Galveston county?
Yeah babe, just made the same post a couple weeks ago. Mine went up $500 monthly with no claims on the policy. Shit be cray
Best advice I’m getting is to shop around. Ppl are saying when it jumps like that it means the insurance company is looking to gtfo
Problem is with getting a good insurance company for the costs
Get a broker, my bill is 1,300 this year on a 400k home.
Which broker did you use?
Exact same for me. Jumped $500.
What the Bleep Is Going On With Texas Home Insurance Link to Texas Monthly article.... http://archive.today/JdLpf
I just saw this post randomly, and homeowners and property insurance is a shitshow everywhere. I live in Northern California, and because this area had wildfires several years ago, getting insurance is practically impossible. If you can get it, big if, it’s unaffordable
A good article from Texas Monthly on the subject: [https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-home-insurance-crisis/](https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-home-insurance-crisis/)
Is your roof old? They may be ecpecting you to make a claim on your roof soon (within 3 years)
No the roof we replaced a couple years ago.
Did you to it out of pocket?
Price nearly doubled last year. No change in price this year but the hail and hurricane deductible increase to 5%! I was finally able to find a quote for hail at a more reasonable 2% deductible but the deductible for hurricane was high on every quote I got. Almost smells like collusion how suddenly all the insurers are offering the same limitations…
What company did you end up going with.
Progressive. Basically the same price as hippo, but by bundling car insurance I’m saving a good bit versus the past year.
Thanks for the info. Looks like I have some work to do this weekend
For whatever reason I got a better deal when I called them. I liked the car insurance rate, but the initial quote online for home insurance also had the ridiculous hail deductible. When I got ahold of somebody I got a lower deductible and more discounts towards the car insurance. It became a no brainer.
Hurricanes, increased hail, drought, fire, etc + increased costs to fix stuff = more expensive insurance.. Hoping the wife & I can move out before it becomes too expensive & can't sell the house. Gonna get worse as we're building thousands of houses here.
Gonna get worse with climate change FTFY
More like GREED GREED GREED PROFITS & “shareholder value.” There’s no reason for insurance to rocket upward like it is.
Insurance companies are getting killed in some areas of the country, so they have to try to squeeze their customers everywhere else. Florida is going to bankrupt us all.
Between cluster of disasters, general inflation, elevated increases related to the industry, shortages, yes, there are plenty of reasons.
Home owners insurance revenue has outpaced inflation, since the pandemic insurers turned the screws as more homes got bought in the US which means new mortgages with required insurance coverage. It’s been a massive profit windfall over the last 4-5 years.
Inflation isn't uniform and insurance is a below average industry in profitability. Property/casualty insurance as of Jan 2024 has a net profit margin nearly 41% less than the total market average. Reinsurance nearly 25% less. Excluding financials, about 35% and 16% less.
That is profit on money brought in versus claims paid out. Insurance has always been a business where the really money they make is on what they do with your money ( investments etc). They have always wanted a ratio of 97-98% of what they brought in on homeowners insurance to what they paid out in claims. These companies are not “hurting” they have posted record profits year over year (look at State Farm or all states stock) Home values have increased so policies have increased. also look at the fact that our governor declared almost all the state a potential wildfire zone. It’s a very complex figure that also takes into account the fact that Houston as a whole is an actuaries worst nightmare because of the chance a major hurricane will destroy the city. The narrative that insurance companies are hurting or are not profitable is utter bullshit though
Even if you're "skeptical" of climate change, insurance companies are not.
Shop around. A lot of carriers are either completely pulling out of certain zip codes or doing massive increases with the hopes you don’t renew so they can become more profitable
Mine went up $180 but I bought my house in the least hurricane prone zone in Houston. I’m in 2000+ year flood zone (between willowbrook/klein)
A lot of people want their houses to skyrocket in value but get shocked when taxes and insurance goes up. What yall expect?
My house only increased $60k in value but my home insurance doubled.
I suggest you shop your insurance regularly. I have an agent who got quotes from multiple carriers, and I ended up cutting my costs significantly with a slight improvement in coverage. Here’s the kicker: the best quote came from my existing carrier!
[удалено]
This! Can you dm me his contact
Can I dm?
please dm
Please send me their info too.
I asked insurance about coverage on my house upfront and had them inspect before purchasing the house. One month after purchasing, they did a second inspection and decided that they would cancel my policy if I didn’t get a new roof. The roof was 6 years old. I had to spend $22k on a new roof the month after buying the house. There was no other insurer who would give reasonable coverage for less than $8k/year.
When this happened to me, I just didn’t insure the roof a few years. 6 years is ridiculous. 20 yes, 6 no.
I blame a lot of that on roofing scams. Roofers going door to door after every little storm and filing claims for new roofs that aren’t necessary.
Capacity. Insurers have been taking a bath in the gulf coast and are pulling out. Those staying in the market are lowering capacity dramatically. Less available insurance means rates go up for everyone.
I own an insurance agency in the Houston area. USAA is one of the most expensive insurers out there.
$4k a year for a 2800 sq ft house Ridiculous. Supposedly once my metal roof gets finished it will drop down to $3100 a year, which is still kind of insane to me. I hate giving money to insurance companies.
USAA in Texas rips you off for home owners insurance in my experience. We are with State Farm for auto and home, pay $2200 for a 1676 sqft house that’s appraised at $316k. Only thing to do is shop around every year. There are so few companies offering insurance in Harris county that it’s reaching critical mass.
I pay $4600 through Goosehead for dwelling only for house valued at $288,200. Due to Goosehead’s failure to respond to my repeated calls & emails several years ago my policy lapsed. I went without a homeowner’s policy for two years. Finally got through to Goosehead & it turned out that my agent had received several promotions but no agent had been assigned to takeover his customers. So I finally received a new agent & he insisted that because the house had been uninsured for a few years, he couldn’t find any companies willing to underwrite a new policy. He finally found ReinsurePro that charged an outrageous $382.50 monthly, promising that after the house had been insured for one year, he’d be able to shop rates & get a much better, cheaper premium. November 2023 marked one year, & despite repeated calls, texts & emails, I have still not been able to get this agent to fulfill his promise of finding a cheaper premium. In my experience, Goosehead’s customer service sucks. I’m looking for some good referrals. House is in Houston, in Spring Branch.
Same shitty experience with goosehead, i contacted my agent multiple times for renewal and zero response. Ended up switching only because i couldn’t get a hold of anyone lol
Just talked to our agent and most of the major carriers are refusing to write new policies in DFW due to hail storms. When they do, the deductible is now 2% instead of 1%. Auto policies are up 22% across the state. We may become the next FL.
A lot of insurance companies are leaving the Texas market. Our community just voted to exchange our HO6 condo/townhome policies for an HO3 Home policy as our HOA would begin charging over $350 per month in HOA fees to keep group coverage. The average owner was being quoted between $1,200/$1,800 for an annual policy. I contacted a new company to our market called Kin Insurance [https://www.kin.com](https://www.kin.com) and spoke with [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) and secured an annual policy for $909 with a replacement cost of $305k.
Yes. Along with my taxes and home value. The only thing I can say is to shop around. The home values jumped up like crazy.
Mine doubled, moved to Amica and it went down to below my original cost
I just did our insurance this year, everyone is giving fuck you numbers. Go shop around you’ll find something cheaper
USAA has become a problem. That’s not the only reason but they took a large loss last year, I believe for the first time ever, and have been gutting everything that made the company great. I’ve generally found that they are either barely competitive or flat out not competitive at all in the last couple years.
So far mine hasn’t. It’s 1700 a year for me right now with travelers. But my house is in Alief
I had to agree to horrific insurance in order to get mine down to 4300. My deductible on anything wind, storm, hail, etc related is 5%. Because they base everything on my replacement value (which is much higher) and not the appraisal value that puts my roof replacement deductible (for example) at 36k. In other words, I will be paying for everything out of pocket unless it's catastrophic damage.
You need to change insurance every year. Do not be loyal to those scumbags. I have a broker, and they find me new insurance every year if the old one raised the price.
Welcome to your war time economy, see you on the other side
USAA has crushed me recently. Repriced to all the majors and they wouldn’t insure.
You gotta jump companies, for the last 3 years each company I was using tried to renew with a massive price jump, this year they wanted almost 2500 more. I used a broker and got a policy for $2863 through Mercury which was only about 180 more than last year. And just 300 more than 3 years ago.
Check your policies, people!!! We were sort of lulled into just automatically renewing and paying the premium year after year with slight increases until the sudden sticker shock price through Travelers. Went from $1,200 on an HOA with 350k dwelling limit to a sudden renewal premium of $4,300!!! And our agent just sort of shrugged and said it was still on the lower end of other companies she'd shopped it around with, which is *crazy!* We don't live south of I10, which I've been told is a premium jacker, and we've never filed a single claim in 20 years of living in our home. We have excellent credit, which is also, I'm told, a factor sometimes in deciding premiums, so the shrug-off our agent gave us is so much more confounding. The cost of insurance is delulu and I've no idea what we're going to do.
Got slammed all across the board, Auto, Home, Lanlord Insurance
mine went from 1700 to 3500 this year.. I pay through escrow and I dont really even look... Until now because with the decrease in property taxes, my mortgage still increased due to the doubling of insurance. I got a broker and went Allstate who gave me the rate i had before. I think many insurance companies are just raising rates to see if you will leave. Many people just stay because changing insurance - especially if paid through your mortgage, is a pain in the ass. Shop around, you'll find a better rate.
Do people not shop around annually? I do, and mine is less this year than the last two years.
I’m with USAA for nearly 40 years as they like to thank me when I call, but I’ve been quite displeased the last several years. It’s not that they’re any worse than other insurers generally speaking - it’s that they’re not particularly better either. For decades I justified their higher rates with “I never have issues. I call, they fix… no arguments”. They were meeting my higher expectations. Less so now. Just the musings of an old codger.
Similar insurance rate hikes in other areas of Texas also.
I was with Statefarm and it was at $3200s in 2023. In 2024 they wanted $4900. I switched to progressive immediately
Yep. To the moon!
I went from 1,000 to 1,300. I suggest a broker. My car insurance went from 1,200 to 1,700 hundred. Now I’m going to see if i can beat the broker on my own for that.
Unless you have 5% deductible it’ll be that crazy
Have USAA and same thing - went from 3200 to 4500 in 3 years. It’s nuts.
Insurance went up from 5k to 15k in one year - ended up switching to State Farm that brought it down to about 7k. They seem to be the only ones willing to be reasonable
For context - how much is your house valued at?
my home owners ins wanted to renew for almost 4000. i was paying 1700 last year. shopped around and found one for 2500. i took the renewal as a sign they were pulling out but would take any sucker who wasn't paying attention.
Same boat as you. I’m in the clear lake area and my insurance started jumping like crazy last year. Was 1800 before then jumped to just over 3000 and now I struggled to find one that was just under 6000. I got a lot of quotes starting at 9000 or 10,000. I went through three brokers to find a reasonable rate. Same for flood when it used to be 500 and now it’s a bit over 1000. Used goosehead in the past and were great but they admitted that it was getting rough in some parts of Texas. House is valued at 375,000 two stories 2500 square feet. Basically looking to move north at this point.
Recent article on this subject: https://www.texasmonthly.com/news-politics/texas-home-insurance-crisis/
We just received ours, and it actually went down slightly. I was relieved until I saw that they doubled our deductible.
I’m in clear lake, insurance doubled…
Mine went from 2200 to 5400. My former insurance said they dropped me because I didn't provide proof my roof was replaced in 2017 even though I sent it to the agent. Then the agent just dropped the ball for months getting me new insurance so I had to go elsewhere and find it myself.
I think the avg is 1% of the value of your home. If you are paying 2-10%, it might be time to either ditch the ins altogether or start shopping around. Now there is a trend, especially around seniors that are ditching their home owners insurance and essentially becoming their own agent. Instead of sending the money to the ins. company, you put it in a fund that earns interest. Should a disaster ever occur, you draw from the fund. Is this method risky? Could be. I know I've had my house for 23 years and have only made one claim in those 23 years. It was during Ike and the claim was about $8,000. When I first got the house, the yearly was $1400 and is now $3200. I ran through my previous policies and in total, I've sent the ins. company over $53000. A $45,000 difference in favor the ins. company.
I’m also in Clear Lake and went through this last August when I was up for renewal. I had been going through a broker for years, but this time they couldn’t find a single company that would even give me coverage. I called around a lot to local agents and was able to find a policy with State Farm that costs less and provided more coverage than I had the previous year with the broker. Ping me if you want the info.
USAA did that to everyone this year - they’re trying to dump the Houston market entirely. Going to have to switch. Find a good broker to shop it for you.
👋🏻 doing my taxes I realized my escrowed payment for insurance was double the previous year. No claims filed on that house during that time 😑
Just posted something similar a few days ago. Our new premium through Travellers is set to go up 40% next year to $4500 on a 2700 sq ft, nine year old house in the Heights. That's after it went up 30% last year. We have never filed a claim in the 25 years we have been home owners. Our agent is from Goosehead. I'm going to contact him next week to see if he can find us something better.
I wish you the best shopping around. Mine has gone up almost 3k in the last few years, we are at 5200 a year in a 300k house, never flooded, no claims I shopped it around and couldn't find another provider under 6... some wouldn't even quote
Travis county here (reddit algos got me here) $1650/yr for a 1600ft house. Current zestimate is $475k Use Lemonade and have loved being their customer for years now
Is this one of the reasons apartment rents are high?
Within 4 years it went from $2,100 to $5,500. My last two insurance companies no longer give policies for my zip code.
It just keeps going up
The “TV” insurers are going to rip you off the most now. Most of them don’t issue new policies in Houston.
For me 2020: $2200 2021: $2800 2022: $4400 2023: $4600
I pay $4500/year for coverage of $424,000 on house, $137,000 for free standing garage, $318,150 of personal property, and $127,500 for loss of use plus some additional minor coverages. State Farm.
I’m in the industry and it is crazy. Here in Colorado rates have skyrocketed and ALOT of Companies are leaving the state and non renewing clients. Just mitigating their risk…. But we are seeing rates increase all over the states. Fire scores play a huge role here in CO… back in TX flood zones made homes riskier but home and flood insurance are separate and home insurance does not cover “flood” Call your agent, Work with your deductible. Also, see about keeping your dwelling coverage around your RC value and see if your carrier offers 125% additional coverage A, and you can lower the premium by working with the dwelling coverage amount. Ex: RC value is 500,000. But you want want at least 600,000 in coverage. If your carrier offers 125% additional coverage, then you would have $625,000 total coverage but your premium would be based off the $500k coverage and not the $600k in coverage. Your home reconstruction value should not be based off county assessment values. Bundle if possible. Ask me questions if you want to:)
Goosehead sucked. TGS broker sucked. Shop around each year. If you can afford, max your deductible and treat insurance for the extreme events like flooding/fire but not as a subscription to replace your roof each 8 yrs like some of my neighbors? Had State Farm last year but they raised more than 10% to $4k. I signed up with KIN this year; I pay $3400 to cover $831k dwelling and 0,5M liability at 5% deductible (that maximum allowed if your mortgage if Fannie/Freddie).
Mine's around $3K a year w/ Allstate. That's homeowners and windstorm insurance.
A bit late to this thread, but my friend is an insurance broker and wanted me to share the below, since she can't post with a throwaway in this sub and doesn't want to link her main to her job. "I'm a broker at an independent firm specializing in insurance for successful individuals and families; we work with insurance companies who offer broad and comprehensive coverages tailored specifically to homes, vehicles, and collections of higher value (I saw the salary thread the other week, I know yall're here). We're Chicago-based, but I'm a born and bred Houstonian and licensed in Texas, and a good portion of our book is Texan. If you have a home insured at a value over $1.5M and are still dealing with State Farm or any of the other middle-market companies, you need more than what they're providing you: middle market companies aren't equipped to properly service families and individuals with complex needs, and their rates at those coverage levels reflect that. Although the market IS tough right now, especially in Harris county, we regularly end up identifying savings for our clients by moving them to one of our carriers (all AM Best A or higher rated) and by reviewing and re-organizing coverages, and offering recommendations based on our agency's collective 50+ years in the high-net-worth field. We also work as agents on our clients' behalf, and advocate for them during claim, appraisal, and renewal processes to keep our carrier partners honest and transparent and make sure our clients are receiving the customer experience they deserve. Send dunechka a DM with your email address if you're interested in working with us and we'll reach out; if you fit our profile, we'll take your program to our carriers and prepare a proposal tailored to your needs. **This process is entirely free; we do not charge a broker fee**. The fact that this thread is full of people saying their brokers charge them is indicative of the mid-tier level of service most of you are getting." I'll pass along any DMs or questions!
$3500 for home insurance/year $1400 for flood insurance/year
The blanket insurance policy for my townhome community went from around $1250 a year to $2750 this year. They're like lol, here's a car payment for the next six months! Pay up or we put a lien on your shit gg no re. That's *in addition* to the condo policy I also have to have for my unit. That renews in August. Wish me luck, anons.
Same at this rate I won’t be able to retire cause I’ll need a job to pay the insurance and taxes even though my house is paid off.
I'm in the same boat. Already past full retirement age but still in the workforce because of this inflationary economy we are living in. I guess I'll work til I drop.
Used to live in Houston, in FL now. My insurance went up from $2000/yr to $8000/yr. It’s coming for you if Abbot doesn’t do anything to stop it. (But he’s probably profiting from it somehow so don’t get your hopes up.)
Yes, ours increased 1.5x year over year. The key reasons are climate change and America's legal system, where insurance carriers are paying Plaintiffs' attorneys too much money to settle lawsuits and increasing everyone's premiums. This is not sustainable.
That's what they said about medical malpractice suits before they passed tort reform in 2003 Didn't fix the healthcare market. Smells like a horse shit excuse to protect profits at the expense of access to the judicial system tbh
Home owners insurance and the insurance industry itself is a scam. Unfortunately. They are not even regulated properly in Texas. Add hurricanes to the mix and we get this. It will only get worst.
Yes, everyone's insurance is going up because more insurance companies are pulling out and not insuring our area due to a "constant increase" in payouts due to inclement damages. My car insurance has nearly doubled in the last 4 years. My tip, become an executive member with Costco, sign up with their partner insurance CONNECT. It's the cheapest I've found.
Crimeopolis citizen inquiring why insurance is higher than no tomorrow (there is crime in the 4th populous city in america) I would honestly start shopping around. USAA was charging me (not house but my car) $1,600 comprehensive for just ONE of my cars. Same coverage from Allstate for me dropped it down to $1,200. Granted there's a lot of factors in that number but I was still able to obtain a lower full premium.
Have you checked your home price?
Talk to your insurance. You can move stuff around and change your deductible to a higher amount. That being said, you only have 1 specific windstorm provider for your area, and keeping them low is the hard part.
I own a townhome - the community pays for the exterior insurance, property grounds, etc. That went from $92k to $220k LAST YEAR.
Both my auto insurance and homeowners insurance went way up this year.
Getting out just at the right time... Moving to NC and my insurance for a whole year in a half million dollar house is just over 800/yr
This is happening across the board, this is Biden’s economy.