Texas home insurance, Built to Rebuild

Most Texas homes are insured to the wrong number. Or with the wrong deductible.

Ask a homeowner what their house is worth and they will tell you the market value. Ask what their dwelling limit should be and most give you the same number. Those are different figures. Your dwelling limit should equal what a builder charges to rebuild your house today, and after the construction inflation of the last few years, a limit set in 2020 and nudged up a few percent each renewal is quietly short of that number. You find out at the worst possible moment.

In Texas there is a second number that matters just as much: your wind and hail deductible. Most Texas policies calculate it as a percentage of the dwelling limit rather than a flat dollar amount, and in a state that sees hail nearly every spring, it is the deductible you are most likely to actually pay. The whole job is getting those numbers right, then building sensible liability, deductible, and endorsement choices around them.

The other half of the job is the market itself. The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas found the median Texas homeowner paid about 60 percent more for home insurance in 2024 than in 2019, roughly double the national increase, and Texas Department of Insurance figures show statewide premium growth slowing from 18.7 percent in 2024 to about 4.3 percent in 2025. Those are statewide averages, not what your home will cost. Roof age, claims history, construction, and where the house sits relative to the nearest creek all move the number, which is why we look at the full picture of your home before we recommend anything.

That is the entire offer here. We will tell you what your home realistically costs to rebuild, how your wind and hail deductible works, what flood coverage costs alongside it, and what bundling with auto does to the price. If you own a condo rather than a house, that is a different policy and a different set of traps. Ballpark it first with the home rate estimator, then call us for the real number.

The four decisions that actually shape your policy.

Past the six coverages, a handful of choices determine whether your policy holds up. These are the ones worth understanding.

1. Rebuild cost, and the cushion above it

Rebuild cost is what a contractor charges today to put your house back: labor, materials, permits, debris removal, and the premium you pay for building one house rather than a subdivision. It has nothing to do with your purchase price or your mortgage balance.

Even a well-set limit can fall short after a major regional storm — a widespread hail event or tornado outbreak — when demand for roofers and contractors pushes prices up all at once. That is what extended replacement cost is for, where your policy offers it: it adds a cushion above your dwelling limit, commonly 25 to 50 percent, for exactly this scenario. Pair it with building code upgrade coverage, which pays the difference when current code requires more than what your house was built to. On an older Texas home, code upgrades alone can be a serious number.

2. Replacement cost versus actual cash value

Replacement cost pays to replace what you lost with new equivalents. Actual cash value pays depreciated value. For belongings, the upgrade to replacement cost is inexpensive and worth it for nearly everyone.

Watch your roof specifically. Many Texas policies now settle older roofs at actual cash value or use separate roof payment schedules, because hail is one of the most common and costly claims in the state. A fifteen-year-old roof pays out like a fifteen-year-old roof while the new one is billed at today's prices, and that difference can run tens of thousands. It is one of the first lines we read on a policy you already have.

3. Your deductible, including the separate one you may not know about

The flat deductible is your main pricing lever, and the right one is the largest number you could write a check for tomorrow without wincing. Moving from $1,000 to $2,500 usually pays for itself over a few claim-free years.

The one to actually read for: nearly every Texas policy carries a separate percentage deductible for wind and hail, calculated on your dwelling limit rather than as a flat dollar amount. On a $300,000 dwelling limit, a 2 percent wind/hail deductible is $6,000, and it applies precisely when you can least absorb it — the morning after a spring hailstorm. You should know your number before storm season, not after.

4. Liability, and why the umbrella is usually the best value on the page

Your homeowners liability limit protects your assets when someone is hurt on your property or you are found responsible for damage elsewhere. Most policies default to $300,000, which was a reasonable number in a different decade.

An umbrella policy stacks $1 million or more on top of both your home and auto liability, and for most households it costs a few hundred dollars a year. Measured in dollars of protection per dollar of premium, nothing else on the page comes close. If you own a home in Texas, you have assets worth defending.

Hail, wind, freezes, clay soil, and flood. What your policy does about each.

Across most of Texas, wind and hail coverage lives on your regular homeowners policy. In designated Gulf Coast areas, wind and hurricane damage may be excluded from a standard policy and written on a separate windstorm policy instead. Either way, no corner of this state gets a quiet weather year. Here is how the Texas risks actually land on your policy.

Hail and wind: covered, with a deductible of their own

Texas is one of the most hail-prone states in the country, and spring storms here also bring tornadoes and straight-line winds. On a standard Texas homeowners policy, wind and hail damage is covered, but usually subject to a separate wind/hail deductible that is often a percentage of your dwelling limit rather than a flat amount. On a $300,000 dwelling limit, a 2 percent deductible is $6,000 out of pocket on a roof claim.

That percentage is a choice, not a fixed fact. A lower one raises the premium; a higher one lowers it and raises what you pay after a storm. We will show you both directions so you pick a deductible you could actually cover in May, when the storms roll through.

Your roof: age, material, and the Class 4 question

Insurers price the roof harder than any other part of a Texas house. Roof age affects both the premium and how a roof claim is settled — many policies pay actual cash value on older roofs, which means depreciation comes out of the check. Class 4 impact-resistant roofing, the top rating under the UL 2218 hail-impact standard, may qualify for a discount and tends to hold up better when the next storm arrives.

After a hailstorm, photograph the damage, make reasonable temporary repairs to prevent more of it, and talk to us before you sign anything with a door-knocking contractor. We will walk you through how the claim and your deductible work.

Winter freezes and burst pipes

Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 hit the whole state at once, with frozen pipes and long power outages, and reminded every Texan that a hard freeze can do serious damage here. Sudden water damage from a burst pipe is generally covered on a standard homeowners policy, subject to your deductible. The fine print: policies generally expect reasonable care, like keeping the heat on, and damage from a slow leak that went unnoticed is treated as maintenance. If the house will sit empty during a deployment, a PCS move, or a long trip, ask us what your policy expects while you are gone.

Foundations and expansive clay soil

Much of Texas sits on expansive clay soil that swells when it is wet and shrinks during drought. Over time that movement can crack slabs, stick doors, and split drywall. Standard homeowners policies generally exclude foundation settling, cracking, and earth movement. Some policies may respond to foundation damage caused by a sudden covered event, such as a plumbing leak under the slab, but the terms vary a great deal. Ask us what your policy says before you need it, and keep up with drainage and consistent watering around the foundation.

Flash floods statewide, and wildfire out west

Flash flooding is a statewide risk, from the Hill Country's "Flash Flood Alley" and the July 2025 Hill Country floods to the flooding Hurricane Harvey brought to the Houston area in 2017. Flood is excluded from a standard homeowners policy and written separately through the National Flood Insurance Program, typically with a 30-day waiting period, so flood coverage has to be in place before the storm is on the radar. Fire, by contrast, is a core covered peril, which matters in parts of West Texas and the Panhandle where wildfire is a real risk. Make sure your dwelling limit would actually rebuild the house.

If you have been non-renewed

Non-renewal is not cancellation, and it is not always about you. Texas requires written notice at least 60 days before your policy expires (Texas Insurance Code §551.105), which is enough time to put replacement coverage in place properly if you start immediately.

Two protections worth knowing before you accept the letter as final. Texas law generally bars an insurer from non-renewing you over claims unless you filed three or more qualifying claims in three years (§551.107) — and weather-related claims cannot be counted against you for that purpose, nor can appliance-related water claims once the underlying issue is repaired. If the letter cites claims history, read it closely and call us with it in hand.

Then move. Sixty days is workable if you start on day one, and it evaporates if you wait a month. Call us the day the letter arrives and we will review the home with you and talk through your options.