Harris County homeowners paid an average of roughly $3,325 in property insurance premiums in 2023 — a $1,000 increase from 2015, data obtained from the Texas Department of Insurance shows. The 43% rise mainly reflects a sharp jump in local property values and a rash of severe storms that caused tens of billions of dollars in losses.
Few Harris County homeowners have been spared from the premium hikes, and there’s no relief in sight. The Texas Department of Insurance reported that premiums rose another 19% in 2024, state legislators passed no laws this year to significantly curb insurance costs and climate scientists forecast more powerful hurricanes in the coming decades.
So far, higher insurance costs — combined with rising property taxes, mortgage interest rates and utility bills — haven’t cooled the dream of home ownership locally. But recent surveying by the Kinder Institute shows most Harris County homeowners are struggling to afford housing, with many citing insurance costs as a factor.
“Home insurance is intended to protect homeowners from risk, but rising costs have made it a growing concern for affordability,” said Aram Yang, a research analyst at the Kinder Institute who analyzed the state insurance data.
How insurance costs are changing
Homeowners insurance costs in Harris County largely track with property values, since it’s more expensive to repair larger homes. Average annual premiums ranged from $5,000 to $9,500 in the wealthiest neighborhoods and were less than $2,500 in many lower-income areas.
Regardless of location, property insurance costs shot up across Harris County between 2015 and 2023.
In many affluent neighborhoods west of downtown Houston, average premiums surged by more than 50% — or roughly $1,500 to $4,000 annually — as property values soared.
Meanwhile, premiums jumped about 50% — typically around $1,000 — in traditionally middle-income suburbs like Cypress, Humble and Baytown.
Homeowners in lower-income neighborhoods felt less pain from premium increases, but most still paid hundreds of dollars more.
Insurance isn’t stopping homebuyers
So far, Harris County homeowners are grinning and bearing the higher insurance costs. About 55% of households owned their homes in 2023, up 2 percentage points from 2019, according to this year’s Kinder Institute State of Housing in Harris County and Houston report.
Still, premium hikes are weighing on budgets.
A late 2024 Kinder Institute survey of more than 5,000 Harris County residents showed two-thirds had at least a little difficulty affording housing costs.
Among homeowners who said they were struggling, about 70% cited home or flood insurance as a reason for their troubles. (Flood insurance costs are separate from homeowners insurance in the state’s data.)
No easy answers
Legislators and insurers agree: There are no simple policy solutions to ease homeowners’ financial burden.
Property values and home repair costs are largely market-driven. Meanwhile, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a leading global scientific authority, has “high confidence” that hurricanes will increasingly pack a bigger punch as oceanic temperatures rise. (The panel has “medium confidence” that the number of tropical cyclones will not increase.)
During this year’s legislative session, Texas lawmakers proposed several policies to cut homeowners insurance costs. Two higher-impact bills would have expanded state oversight of rate increases and created a grant program incentivizing homeowners to storm-proof their homes.
The Texas Senate passed both bills, but they died in a House of Representatives committee. Homeowners insurance is not on Gov. Greg Abbott’s list of 18 items for the special legislative session that began June 21.
