Texas loses another home insurer

Another home insurer is pulling back in Texas as extreme weather events threaten properties across the state.

Progressive Insurance is no longer writing new homeowner insurance policies in Texas, the company confirmed to WFAA-TV in Dallas last week. The decision had previously been reported by Insurify, a home insurance quotes comparison site.

Progressive didn't immediately respond to questions from the Houston Chronicle about the scope or timing of the pullback, or whether existing policyholders may have their coverage canceled or not renewed.

The company is primarily known for its car insurance and is the largest auto insurer in Texas by market share, according to the Texas Department of Insurance.

But Progressive has played a growing role in the home insurance market since acquiring American Strategic Insurance, a home insurance company headquartered in Florida, in 2015.

The Progressive Group is now among the 10 largest home insurance companies in Texas, according to TDI, with some $390 million in premiums written in 2023, up about 27% from 2022.

In Texas, insurers are required to notify the Department of Insurance if they stop offering a particular line of insurance anywhere in the state, and companies have not been stampeding out of the state, according to TDI data. The number of insurance companies offering policies in Texas has remained steady since 2022.

The Progressive pullback, however, is one of several reported in Texas this year. For example, Foremost Insurance, a subsidiary of Farmers Insurance, has stopped renewing some homeowners' policies in Texas, citing "our exposure and risks relating to natural and catastrophic losses" in a letter sent to one Houston homeowner whose policy was not renewed.

Meanwhile, many homeowners in the Houston region have seen their premiums rise sharply.

During 2023, according to a January analysis by S&P Global, the average homeowners insurance premium rose by about 23% in Texas -- the largest increase in any state. Half the states had premium increases of at least 10%.

According to TDI, property owners in coastal Texas, including the Houston region, are at greatest risk of having their premiums soar or their policies dropped as a result of the region's exposure to storms such as Hurricane Beryl, which made landfall in July and caused significant flooding and extensive wind damage.

Insurers operating in Texas and other states have also identified tornadoes, wildfires and hail as factors prompting them to tighten their underwriting standards or even revisit their presence in certain markets.

Insurify notes that Progressive CEO Tricia Griffith, in an August letter to shareholders, wrote that the company would focus on growing in states that are less exposed to volatile weather.

"Reducing the impact from weather-related volatility is strategically important and shifting our geographic mix continues to be a top priority," she wrote.