We are marking the one-year anniversary of the state's most expensive tornado outbreak. Most of the cost was created by an EF-3 tornado that slashed North Dallas on October 20, 2019.
Dallas tornado outbreak in October 2019 is just the latest costly North Texas weather event
The Insurance Council of Texas (ICT), just out with a new annual review, says just the losses that were insured in the October tornado outbreak are estimated at $2 billion. To date, the Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) reports that $1.2 billion in claims has been paid. There have been 33,800 residential claims paid, totaling $932.5 million. There have been 780 paid commercial occurrences, totaling $243.2 million.
The ICT says the October 2019 storm system ranks as the costliest weather event in Texas history that wasn't a hurricane or tropical storm. And North Texas tornados and hailstorms now account for half of the top ten most expensive weather events ever in this state, as noted in the linked report above.
2019: Not one rate change request from insurers was denied by Texas for non-technical reasons
That might help explain why your homeowners' and renters' insurance premiums are rising. Even before the expensive 2019 tornados, Texas had some of the highest home insurance costs in the country. With premiums well above the national average, the state was listed as the third-most-expensive property insurance market in the country on this list from ValuePenguin.
Looking at rate reviews from 2019, insurers doing business in Texas requested 2,828 rate changes. Two-hundred-twenty-two of those were withdrawn by insurance companies. Forty-two were rejected for technical reasons. The state didn’t reject any of the requests for non-technical reasons. 2,564 of the 2,828 rate changes were approved or allowed to stand. TDI explains: “Our review looks to make sure rates are adequate but not excessive.”
How much profit Texas insurers made from homeowner and renter policies in 2019
Of course, companies in the insurance industry have to make money; otherwise, they wouldn’t do business here. So, how much money are they making from homeowners and renters?
This TDI report breaks down the profits and losses of the 25 biggest homeowners insurance companies, which had 87.64% of the policy market share in Texas in 2019. Some of the big 25 lost money in 2019. But combined, the big providers made a big profit in Texas: $284,893,024.