Cut regulations. Create more competition.
Right, that ought to work.
Description:
Representative Briscoe Cain is getting an earful from Texans about the surging homeowner insurance rates.
Hurricane Harvey’s catastrophic flooding tore down scores of structures southeast of Houston’s city center. This year’s Hurricane Beryl took its toll on the suburban stretch, too, leaving thousands of homeowners in need of aid.
That hasn’t stopped developers from building new homes in the attractively-affordable area. But extreme weather is making homeownership there more challenging – and expensive.
Home insurance costs in the southeastern slice of the Houston metropolitan area are higher than almost everywhere else in the country, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Homeowners in that area can pay upwards of $3,740 for fire, hazard and flood insurance annually. That’s nearly three times the national average and about 60% higher than the Texas state average.
There is no single explanation for the record-high costs, which extend to much of the greater Houston-Galveston area and neighboring coastal counties. Higher rates of inflation driving up the price of home construction and repair are partly to blame; the surging costs insurers face to offset growing numbers of losses are another factor. One of the key culprits, however, appears to be the territory’s all-too-frequent catastrophic weather.