Texas
Texas home insurance problem worsens as insurer halts new policies
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.
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“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 Several private insurers have cut coverage or withdrawn entirely from the Sunshine State in the past few years as Florida faces a homeowner insurance crisis exacerbated by widespread fraud and excessive litigation.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.
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A Texas state trooper was killed in a crash in the Panhandle, becoming the 244th Texas Department of Public Safety officer to die in the line of duty since 1823, according to the agency.
Sergio Romero, 27, died Wednesday after a semi-truck pulled in front of him as he attempted a traffic stop around 4 p.m. on U.S. 287 in Childress County, DPS said.
In a statement, Col. Freeman F. Martin praised Romero’s courage, integrity, and service.
“Today, we grieve the loss of one of our own,” Martin said. “… Our hearts break alongside his family, friends, fellow troopers, and all who loved him. We will never forget the ultimate sacrifice he made in service of his fellow Texans.”
Romero previously served with the Hall County Sheriff’s Office before joining DPS as part of Class B-2025 in Childress, the agency said.
He is survived by his wife, Francisca, and their two young sons.
Funeral arrangements are pending. The crash remains under investigation.
Flash flood warning in Texas as streets fill with water
Flash flood warnings are active as heavy rain swamps roads across central Texas and rising waters pose danger to drivers.
Texas is keeping more than half of its counties under a state of emergency.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott renewed three statewide disaster declarations on Tuesday, June 16 — covering flooding, drought and border security — which together place 164 of the state’s 254 counties under emergency authority.
Each of the orders, signed by Abbott and filed with Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson, authorizes the use of “all available resources of state government and of political subdivisions that are reasonably necessary to cope with this disaster.”
Here’s a look at what the proclamations are for and which counties are under them.
Flood disaster from deadly 2025 Hill Country storms holds across 30 counties
On July 4, 2025, Abbott issued a disaster declaration following heavy rainfall and flooding that caused widespread and severe property damage, injury and loss of life in several counties.
The Camp Mystic flooding, which killed 27 campers and counselors, also occurred during this time frame. The original declaration included 21 counties located in the Texas Hill Country and the Concho Valley in the central part of the state.The disaster order has been renewed over the past year, expanding to include 30 counties in the June 2026 renewal and does the following:
- Suspends all laws that prevent the transfer of bodies to families as soon as possible.
- Suspends all laws regarding state agencies’ contracting or procurement rules that would impede its emergency response necessary to protect life or property threatened by the declared disaster.
- Temporarily suspended — with written approval from the governor’s office — laws that would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action to respond to the disaster.
Drought disaster covers 111 Texas counties as wildfire risk persists
Abbott amended and renewed a drought disaster order originally issued on July 8, 2022, and it has been renewed several times over the past four years.
When it was originally signed, the order impacted 158 counties across the entire state, from the Texas Panhandle to the Permian Basin to the Texas Hill Country.
The original order states that the persistent drought conditions in the state have increased the wildfire threat in the region. The June 2026 renewal order states that the Texas Division of Emergency Management has confirmed that those same drought conditions persist; however, only 111 counties are listed in the renewed order.
The order does the following:
- Suspends all laws regarding state agencies’ contracting or procurement rules that would impede its emergency response necessary to protect life or property threatened by the declared disaster.
- Temporarily suspends — with written approval from the governor’s office — laws that would prevent, hinder, or delay necessary action to respond to the disaster.
Border security disaster spans 70 counties in fifth-year renewal
The original order was issued in May 2021 in response to a “surge of individuals unlawfully crossing the Texas-Mexico border posed an ongoing and imminent threat of disaster for a number of Texas counties.”
The original 2021 order affected 34 counties along the Texas border from El Paso to Brownsville, with Abbott saying it was in response to former President Joe Biden’s open-border policy.
“President Biden’s open-border policies have paved the way for dangerous gangs and cartels, human traffickers, and deadly drugs like fentanyl to pour into our communities,” Abbott said in a June 2021 statement. “Meanwhile, landowners along the border are seeing their property damaged and vandalized on a daily basis while the Biden Administration does nothing to protect them.
The order has been renewed and amended several times over the past five years, with the June 2026 order impacting 70 counties from El Paso through the Hill Country and the lower Rio Grande Valley.
The renewed order declares a state of disaster for those counties and for all state agencies impacted by the prescribed disaster.
Mateo Rosiles is the Texas Connect reporter for USA TODAY and its regional papers in Texas. Got a news tip for him? Email him at mrosiles@usatodayco.com.
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