Galveston County Homeowner's Insurance - Windstorm / Hurricanes
October 29th, 2011
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I sat down again with Lane McKinney, a local insurance expert... and here's what he had to say about Hurricanes and how it relates to pricing on insurance in the Galveston County, League City, and Clear Lake area:
It has been over 3 years since Hurricane Ike put a direct hit on us in the Galveston-Clear Lake area. You would think that not having a direct hit for almost 25 years prior to Hurricane Ike and nothing happening within the last 3 years would help lower our home insurance rates.
NOT SO !!.... With weather forecasters constantly predicting "Record Storms This Year" at the beginning of each year,the insurance companies have been raising their prices to offset these forecasts.The forecasts of numerous storms also raises the cost of re-insurance rates which all carriers purchase for themselves to spread out the risks in areas of high risk.Once again this passes on higher costs to the consumers.
While you would normally think that no storms would bring in more competition, it has not happened and the trend looks as though the coastal insurance risks are steadily rising in price. This is very disturbing news as typically more competition breeds better pricing.We are all facing tough times in this recession and the insurance outlook has insurance agents and customers alike very worried about the future and future prices.
Here is hoping that our lawmakers will put in mandatory guidelines that ALL insurance carriers must actively and properly quote ALL risks and quit picking only the risks they WANT and leaving everyone else out to dry. As we speak there are standard insurance carriers constantly non-renewing policies and saying they do not want any risk towards the coastal areas. This pick and choose mentality is killing the consumers and we are forced to go through surplus insurance lines which are very costly.
Shop your policies as this is the only way now to see if you are getting the best rate possible !!
Special thanks to:
Lane McKinney
McKinney Insurance TWFG
Disclaimer : The views and opinions expressed in this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Houston Association of REALTORS®
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