Insurance Is the Third Rail of North Texas Affordability
How much do Texas homeowners pay for insurance? Insured Texas homeowners with a mortgage spend about $331 a month on coverage or 14.4% of their combined mortgage, property tax and insurance costs. That's the third-heaviest insurance burden in the country, behind only Nebraska and Oklahoma.
The national figure is $200 a month or 8.5%. Those numbers come from a LendingTree analysis of Census Bureau housing-cost data published in July 2026.
Here's why this deserves an article instead of a footnote: a preapproval letter tells you what you can borrow not what you can afford. Principal and interest are easy to estimate. Insurance is the line that moves, sometimes by hundreds of dollars a month between two houses at the same price.
The perils people forget
Fire, wind, hail, tornado, wildfire and earthquake all belong on the list. Three more belong there too and they're the ones that hurt worst, because a standard homeowners policy doesn't cover them.
Flood. Not covered. Ever. It requires a separate policy.
Foundation and soil movement. North Texas expansive clay swells and shrinks with drought and rain, and the standard Texas endorsement excludes loss "caused by, contributed to, aggravated by or resulting from settling, cracking, bulging, shrinkage or expansion of foundations."
Freeze and burst pipes. This one is covered and it's why Winter Storm Uri produced 456,531 claims and about $8.2 billion in insured losses in a single week in February 2021. Know that your policy expects you to mitigate: shut off the water, move things off the floor.
Hurricanes, meanwhile, aren't really a North Texas peril. We get remnant rainfall, not coastal windstorm. The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association covers 14 coastal counties, and Collin, Dallas, Rockwall and Hunt aren't among them.
Why Texas premiums climbed the way they did
The state average annual homeowners premium went from $1,961 in 2019 to $3,291 in 2024, a 68% increase, according to TDI's own market data. Statewide rate changes ran 21.1% in 2023 and 18.7% in 2024 before easing to 4.3% in 2025.
The driver is not mysterious. Wind and hail account for roughly 62% of all Texas homeowner insurance losses since 2019. Texas recorded 902 major hail events in 2025 and has led the nation in hail damage for eleven consecutive years. The National Insurance Crime Bureau calls Texas the hail damage capital of the United States.
North Texas is central to that record. The May 1995 Fort Worth "Mayfest" storm remains the second-costliest hailstorm in state history at $1.1 billion and DFW storms drove much of Texas's record 2016 hail season, which produced more than 500,000 claims statewide.
One glimmer: Texas home insurers had their most profitable year in two decades in 2025 and the Insurance Commissioner has publicly suggested carriers consider whether rate decreases are in order. Texas is a file-and-use state, so she can't order them.
The roof is the whole ballgame
If you learn one thing from this article, make it this.
Texas carriers have quietly rewritten how roofs get paid for. A replacement cost policy pays what a new roof costs today. An actual cash value policy pays the depreciated value. TDI publishes a worked example that should stop every buyer cold. Here's a $10,000 roof with a $4,000 deductible:
Roof age | Actual cash value | What you actually receive |
|---|---|---|
5 years | $8,500 | $4,500 |
10 years | $7,000 | $3,000 |
20 years | $4,000 | $0 |
A twenty-year roof on an ACV policy pays you nothing. You are insured and you are also buying the roof yourself.
TDI puts it plainly: "As roofs age, some companies will switch to actual cash value," and "if your roof is in poor condition, your company might not cover your roof at all."
There's no Texas law setting an age cutoff. This is carrier underwriting appetite and it varies. But in practice, many carriers convert roof coverage to actual cash value somewhere around 10 to 15 years, require an inspection at 15 to 20, and decline new business past 20. The industry is also shifting from roof age toward roof condition, which cuts both ways: a well-maintained twenty-year roof may fare better than a neglected ten-year one.
Two more roof items to check on any quote:
Cosmetic damage exclusions. These endorsements exclude dents, marring and pitting that don't affect function, which in hail country describes the most common damage there is. The exclusion often extends past the roof to siding, gutters, windows and doors and it's frequently accepted in exchange for a small premium credit, buried in the endorsements rather than stated on the declarations page.
Impact-resistant roofing credits. TDI lists products qualifying under UL Standard 2218. Discounts are voluntary and set by each carrier but worth asking about, especially if you're replacing a roof anyway.
Your deductible is a percentage and it just went up
Most North Texas policies carry a separate wind and hail deductible expressed as a percentage of dwelling coverage not a flat dollar amount and not a percentage of what you paid for the house.
Two percent has become the standard across most of North Texas. One percent is largely gone from the major carriers and the trend is now official: the Texas FAIR Plan eliminated its 1% wind/hail deductible effective July 1, 2026, moving existing policyholders to 2% at renewal.
What that means in dollars:
Dwelling coverage | 1% | 2% | 5% |
|---|---|---|---|
$300,000 | $3,000 | $6,000 | $15,000 |
$400,000 | $4,000 | $8,000 | $20,000 |
$500,000 | $5,000 | $10,000 | $25,000 |
And because it's a percentage of dwelling coverage, your deductible rises automatically every time replacement cost gets adjusted upward at renewal. Nobody sends a letter about that.
Now combine the two ideas, which is where North Texas homeowners actually get hurt. A $300,000 home with a 2% wind/hail deductible has a $6,000 deductible. A $13,000 roof replacement on an ACV settlement, depreciated 60%, is worth $5,200. Subtract the deductible and the payout is zero. The homeowner replaces the roof out of pocket while holding a policy that covers hail.
Claim history: what you can actually get
This is worth getting exactly right because two true statements constantly get conflated.
A CLUE report (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange, run by LexisNexis) holds up to seven years of insurance claim history for a property. A prior owner's 2022 hail claim becomes your claim history the day you close.
You can't get the report itself. It's released to the property owner, the insurer or the lender. NAR states it plainly: "real estate agents and buyers cannot access CLUE reports for properties they are interested in." Your insurance agent can't hand you a copy either and that's a data-vendor contract restriction, not a legal one.
But you can absolutely get the information and this is the step most buyers skip. When you ask an insurance agent to quote a specific address you're under contract on, the carrier pulls a property-level loss history report keyed to that address. That's CLUE Property or Verisk's competing A-PLUS Property, whose own documentation notes that "only names and addresses are mandatory" and advertises seven years of loss data delivered at quote. Prior owners' claims are in there and carriers are permitted to price on them.
So the script isn't "get me the CLUE report." It's "quote this exact address and tell me what the loss history shows." A good agent will tell you whether the home is insurable, what it costs and what's on the record. They just can't email you the PDF.
Two other paths worth knowing:
Ask the seller. An owner can pull their own report free once a year, online, in minutes. A seller who won't spend ten minutes on a free report is telling you something.
Texas already gives you part of it. Since 2019, Texas Property Code § 5.008 requires sellers to disclose whether they have ever filed a flood damage claim or received FEMA or SBA flood assistance. That's an enforceable right to real claim history. Note the limit: it covers flood, not hail, fire or theft.
Why all of this matters: under Texas Insurance Code § 551.107, an insurer may refuse to renew a policy after three or more claims in any three-year period and must warn the policyholder after two that a third could trigger non-renewal. So a property carrying two prior claims means you'd be buying a house that is one claim away from a coverage problem.
One fair nuance: that same statute bars insurers from using claims "resulting from a loss caused by natural causes" as the sole basis for non-renewal. A pure hail claim shouldn't by itself end your policy. It still shows up on CLUE, still affects pricing, and carriers retain wide discretion on new business.
What your policy doesn't cover
Flood. Excluded from every standard policy. NFIP coverage caps at $250,000 building and $100,000 contents, averages roughly $700 a year in Texas and typically carries a 30-day waiting period, though policies purchased in connection with a mortgage are generally effective at closing. Confirm which applies to you.
Here's the statistic that should change behavior: more than 40% of NFIP flood claims come from outside mapped high-risk flood areas. TDI notes that "Flash Flood Alley extends through Central and North Texas" and that almost every major Texas city sits in an area at high risk of flooding. Yet only about 7% of Texas homes carry flood insurance and in inland areas including DFW and Hunt County it's 1 to 2%. Check any address at FEMA's Flood Map Service Center.
Foundation and soil movement. Excluded, as quoted above. Some policies cover sudden and accidental damage from a plumbing leak beneath the slab but the foundation damage itself and the tunneling to reach it are commonly limited or excluded and it varies by policy form. Read yours.
Earthquake. Excluded and not hypothetical here. SMU and UT researchers mapped 251 faults in the Fort Worth Basin with 200-plus earthquakes since 2008, tied to wastewater injection. Azle and Irving are the documented swarms. In fairness, the highest-risk faults don't sit under the densest urban core and local events have topped out around magnitude 4.0. Coverage is an inexpensive endorsement; ask for a quote rather than assuming.
The buyer's timeline
Before you write an offer: get a property-specific quote using the actual address. Carriers price by address, roof age and claim history, so a generic estimate is worthless. Ask the roof's age and get the wind/hail deductible in writing.
In the offer: ask the seller to provide their CLUE report. Make it a deliverable, not a favor. Or ask your favorite insurance agent to quote this exact address and tell me what the loss history shows.
During the option period: have the inspector assess roof condition, remaining life, and any foundation movement, then take those findings back to the insurance agent. A quote given before inspection is a guess.
Before you waive anything: confirm whether the roof settles at replacement cost or actual cash value, and whether a cosmetic damage exclusion is attached.
If you already own
Your renewal is not a bill you have to accept. Three free state tools: HelpInsure.com for comparison shopping with complaint indexes attached, Texas homeowners losses by county (new in June 2026) for actual paid losses where you live and rate filing search to see whether your carrier filed an increase.
Also: Texas requires 30 days' advance written notice of non-renewal and a late notice renews the policy for the same term. If two or more carriers decline you, the Texas FAIR Plan is the residual market: a backstop, not a bargain.
Frequently asked questions
Can a buyer get a CLUE report on a house before buying it? Not the report itself, which is released only to the owner, the insurer, or the lender. But a buyer can get the substance of it. When you ask an insurance agent to quote a specific address you're under contract on, the carrier pulls a property-level loss history report on that address, and prior owners' claims appear in it. Ask your agent what the loss history shows. You can also ask the seller to pull their own copy, which is free once a year.
Why is my insurance quote so much higher on one house than another at the same price? Usually the roof. Age, material and condition drive both premium and whether coverage is written at replacement cost or actual cash value. Prior claims on the property, dwelling replacement cost rather than sale price and the wind/hail deductible also move the number substantially.
Does homeowners insurance cover foundation problems in North Texas? Generally no. Standard Texas policies exclude loss from settling, cracking, bulging, shrinkage or expansion of foundations, which is what expansive clay soil causes. Some policies cover sudden and accidental damage from a plumbing leak under the slab, but terms vary widely, so read the specific policy.
Get the number before you need it
We ask every buyer we work with to get a real insurance quote on the actual address before writing an offer and to get the CLUE report during the option period. It has changed offers. Occasionally it has changed which house.
If you're buying, selling or just staring at a renewal that went up again, we'll walk through what to ask and where to look.
Visit MartenTeam.com or book a consultation.
If you enjoyed this blog, you might also find these interesting: Hail Damage in North Texas, Don't Let a "Roaming Roofer" Turn Into and Expensive Mistake, Foundation in North Texas and The Texas Option Period.
Jeanie Marten Real Estate does not sell insurance and does not recommend specific carriers. Coverage terms, exclusions and deductibles vary by policy. Read your own policy and consult a licensed insurance agent. Premium and loss data from the Texas Department of Insurance; burden figures from LendingTree, July 2026.
