Another company offering homeowner insurance in Texas will stop offering new policies in the state, per reports, in a move that’s likely to exacerbate the sector’s unfolding crisis.

Progressive Insurance confirmed to WFAA-TV earlier this week that it was “temporarily restricting new homeowners (HO3) business for certain agents in several states,” including Texas. Last month, home insurance comparison website Insurify reported that Progressive would stop offering new home insurance policies in Texas and some Midwestern states, including Illinois, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin.

No other state besides Texas has been confirmed as being included in the “temporary” restrictions by Progressive. Newsweek contacted Progressive Insurance for comment by email on Friday morning, outside of standard working hours.

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According to Insurify, which quoted a report from P&C Specialist, Progressive stopped offering new home insurance policies in Texas as of August 13. While Progressive didn’t cite concerns over more frequent natural disasters as the reason for cutting coverage in the state, the issue is mentioned in a letter to shareholders in the company’s quarterly 10-Q filing obtained by Insurify.

“Reducing the impact from weather-related volatility is strategically important and shifting our geographic mix continues to be a top priority,” Progressive’s CEO Tricia Griffith said in the letter. “We continue to focus on growing in states where weather risk is relatively lower, while maintaining or reducing our market share in higher volatile states that are more susceptible to catastrophic weather events and have higher exposure to hail.”

At the end of 2023, Progressive dropped 115,000 policyholders in Florida, a state prone to hurricanes and disastrous tropical storms, sending them non-renewal notices. Several private insurers have cut coverage or withdrawn entirely from the Sunshine State in the past few years as Florida faces a homeowner insurance crisis exacerbated by widespread fraud and excessive litigation.

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According to the Texas Department of Insurance, the Progressive Group is among the ten largest home insurance companies in the state. In 2023, the agency reported that Progressive wrote $390,170,992 in premiums for homeowners’ multiple-peril insurance that year.

The reported pullback from the company is likely to exacerbate the situation in Texas, where another insurer—Foremost Insurance, a subsidiary of Farmers Insurance—stopped renewing some policies earlier this year. The company cited “our exposure and risks relating to natural and catastrophic losses” as the reason it was not renewing a Houston homeowner’s policy, as reported by the Houston Chronicle.

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Like other states vulnerable to extreme weather events, Texas has seen home insurance premiums climb across the state in the past year. According to Bankrate, Texas homeowners pay an average of $3,898 for $300,000 in dwelling coverage—72 percent more than the national annual average cost of home insurance, $2,270 for $300,000 in dwelling coverage.

In July, NBC 5 reported that some homeowners in the state were hit with double-digit insurance rate hikes, with one resident’s premiums rising from $2,600 last year to $8,800 this year.

Are you a Texas homeowner whose home insurance policy isn’t going to be renewed by Progressive? Have you faced significant rate hikes? Contact g.carbonaro@newsweek.com.

HOUSTON – It’s a move that seems to benefit the insurance giant, but the realtor who spoke to KPRC 2′s Deven Clarke expects it to have a major impact on the local buyers’ market.

“Homeowners insurance is, I mean, one of the most important things because if anything happens you want to make sure your home is insured,” said Cathy Treviño, the immediate past chair for the Houston Association of Realtors.

She also emphasized that homeowner’s insurance is mandatory for buyers who take out a mortgage.

“What I understand is progressive was one of the top ten largest real estate companies in Texas,” Treviño said.

Now Progressive no longer offers the option for new policies for home insurance in the state.

“In Texas, you’re starting to see more and more, you know, stronger natural disasters and so you’re seeing, unfortunately, providers pull out,” Treviño said.

In a report, filed with the securities and exchange commission or (sec), Progressive’s CEO, Tricia Griffith’s letter to shareholders partly reads, “Reducing the impact from weather-related volatility is strategically important and shifting our geographic mix continues to be a top priority,”

It goes on to say, “We continue to focus on growing in states where weather risk is relatively lower, while maintaining or reducing our market share in higher volatile states that are more susceptible to catastrophic weather events and have higher exposure to hail.”

“Tornadoes we’re seeing wildfires, hurricanes, hail, all of these things have a large factor into insurance companies and because we’re seeing more and more of it, they’re paying a lot more out,” Treviño said. “It’s really putting a pinch on homebuyers.”

It doesn’t appear Progressive’s move affects homeowners who already have homeowners’ insurance with them, but Treviño says she’s already seen homeowners’ insurance renewal rates increase between about 10-23 percent across the board. A trend she expects will continue to ramp up in our state.

AUSTIN, Texas (KTRK) — Talk to a Texas homeowner; no matter where they live, one thing could be in common.

“Property tax owners need relief,” Ronnie Kirkwood said. “Property taxes are way too high. They’ve been way too high for a long time.”

“Their property taxes are high, and what are you going to do? It is what it is,” Brittney Hughley said.

This week, a group of lawmakers learned what it would take to eliminate property taxes. About $80 billion in property taxes are collected.

The state uses that money for schools, infrastructure, and other projects. To replace the property taxes, the Texas Taxpayers and Researchers Association said the state’s sales tax figure would have to more than double by more than 20%.

“Any proposal to raise sales taxes outside of doing so indirectly by removing some targeted exemptions is another policy that’s dead on arrival this session,” Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said.

Jones added that while lawmakers may not eliminate property taxes, reducing them will be a priority this upcoming session. Jones said you may not have to worry about a rising sales tax.

Instead, he said a push to bring casinos could be the answer.

“That provides a revenue source that presently isn’t on stream that would provide revenue in perpetuity that could fund property tax relief not just for one or two years or three or four years but for decades,” Jones said.

The Tax Foundation said Texas has the sixth highest property tax rates in the country. Last year, $82 billion were collected. The state collected half of that amount at $45 billion a decade ago.

Experts said rising property prices have dramatically increased revenue, which would make it hard to eliminate. Relief, though, is a common theme among homeowners we talked to.

“Think about all the homeowners out there and the regular person and the economy – how it affects everybody right now,” Hughley said.

“Let’s lower them some more,” Kirkwood said. “That’s what we need to do.”

It appears gambling could be something Texans get behind. Earlier this year, the Texas Hispanic Policy Foundation found nearly 60% of Texans support resort-style casinos.

It’s a figure political experts said will be on lawmakers’ minds when they meet next year to discuss property tax relief.

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