CAPITAL HIGHLIGHTS | Gary Borders
A growing number of Texas homeowners are forgoing buying homeowners insurance as premiums skyrocket, according to a recent report from the Texas comptroller.
Recent natural disasters — hurricanes, severe storms and wildfires — have prompted some insurers to limit or even eliminate coverage in Texas. Daniel Oney, research director of the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, said premium increases in Texas have outpaced the rest of the country.
“At the end of 2023, Texas had the biggest percentage point increase of any state in the last five years,” he said. “You file claims, the insurance companies pay that, then they have to get that covered by the reinsurers. So, some of the price increases we’re seeing now are from storms that happened a couple of years ago.”
Oney said a “surprisingly large number of people” are choosing not to have insurance once their home is paid for. Mortgage lenders require homeowner insurance, but there is no requirement to do so once a home is paid for.
The high cost of insurance is just one factor affecting the state’s housing shortage, which is driving up home prices and rental costs. The Texas Tribune reported in 2022 the state needed about 320,000 more homes than existed, according to an estimate by Up For Growth, a housing policy organization.
“While Texas has been building a lot of housing overall, in many places, it just has not been enough to keep up with demand in the state and people moving in from out of state,” said David Garcia, Up For Growth’s policy director.
Texas buys two ranches near the border
The state General Land Office announced last week it has bought a massive ranch in the Big Bend Region and a smaller ranch in Starr County, The Tribune reported. The 353,785acre Brewster Ranch that borders Big Bend National Park is a collection of 28 ranches put together by its previous owner over two decades. Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham said the ranch could be used for hunting, agriculture and carbon sequestration.
“With such a beautiful and expansive property, the GLO has the opportunity to generate many forms of revenue for the schoolchildren of Texas,” she said in a statement.
Also purchased was a 1,400-acre ranch in Starr County, along the Texas-Mexico border. The state plans to build a border wall on the property to deter illegal migration.
Northeast Texas officials attack reservoir study
A recent study by the Texas Water Development Board on the long-proposed Marvin Nichols Reservoir is under attack by northeast Texas officials, The Dallas Morning News reported. The proposed 66,000-acre lake would be built in Franklin, Red River and Titus counties to pump water more than 100 miles to the Dallas-Fort Worth area at an estimated cost of $7 billion. It has been on the state’s planning books since 1968, drawing staunch opposition from landowners and officials in the affected counties.
The Region D water planning group, which represents those counties, said the draft report is biased and misleading. Opponents of the reservoir say it would destroy homes, farms, churches and cemeteries while not providing any benefit for people living in that area. Proponents say the reservoir is a solution to Dallas-Fort Worth’s growing water needs as its population continues to boom.
“It’s a flawed project. It should not go forward,” said Jim Thompson, chairman of the Region D planning group. “It should be removed from the state water plan.”
Kevin Ward, the chairman of Region C, which represents the metroplex area, said the concerns of northeast Texas residents have been heard.
“We’ve heard it, so you’ve got to believe that if we thought there was another way to do what we’re trying to do right now … we’d certainly latch onto it as fast as we could,” he said.
Gary Borders is a veteran award-winning Texas journalist. He published a number of community newspapers in Texas during a 30-year span, including in Longview, Fort Stockton, Nacogdoches, Lufkin and Cedar Park. Email: [email protected]
