How common hailstorms impact home insurance for North Texans
Baseball-sized hailstones plummeting from the sky over North Texas may inflict hefty bills on insurance companies, but homeowners are often left holding the bag.
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The East Coast has hurricanes, and the West Coast has wildfires. Texas, meanwhile, has a little bit of everything, said Daniel Oney, director of the Texas Real Estate Research Center. There are wildfires out west in the Panhandle, hurricanes near the coast and storms in Central Texas.
Along Interstate 35 you see strong storms bring localized flooding or tornadoes, Oney said, and something so common in Dallas Fort Worth – simple hailstorms.
“A good hailstorm in Dallas-Fort Worth is almost like having a hurricane.”
“It’s so expensive. Especially because of the comparative frequency between a hurricane and a hailstorm.”
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People don’t think about that, he said, “They think about real dramatic hurricanes, but just a good thunderstorm can cause a lot of damage.”
In 2025, Texas led the country in the number of major hailstorms for the year, according to the Insurance Institute.
A News analysis of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data on storms in Dallas, Collin, Denton and Tarrant counties shows that between 2020 and 2025, the four counties recorded more than 1,800 storms, half of which were hailstorms. Collectively, these hailstorms caused property damage worth over $2.3 billion, according to the NOAA analysis.
Furthermore, the hailstorm data shows these storms have worsened in frequency and magnitude over the past decade, compared with the previous 10 years.
While hail is less likely to destroy a home than a wildfire or a tornado, it causes significant damage to roofs, and strong hailstorms often have a wider path of destruction than other storms, said Reid Taylor, research economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“So instead of totally destroying a dozen homes, it can cause significant damage to tens or hundreds of thousands of homes — in addition to crops and cars — creating an extremely costly event for insurance companies.”
Hail is the No. 1 cause of loss for home insurance in Texas, Reid said, noting it accounts for most losses or insurance claims paid out for all quarters except for the winter storm of 2021.
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Inevitably, hail is now cited as one of the top reasons for home insurance premiums to skyrocket in the region.
Homeowners in Collin, Dallas and Denton counties pay some of the highest premiums in the state, according to a News analysis of data from the Texas Department of Insurance. With an annual average premium of over $4,000, home insurance costs have grown by about 80% since 2020. The average premium in Tarrant County, which grew 64% to $3,200, is closer to the state average increase of 58%.
“The counties surrounding Dallas have high insurance premiums, in part due to the higher home values compared to the rest of the state,” Reid said. He noted that homeowners in Dallas and Collin counties also have some of the highest average policy coverage among Texas counties.
In the last five years, the material costs for building a house have gone up 40%, Oney said. So repairs on a newer house damaged in the storm would cost an additional 40%, if not more, over the original build cost.
The impact of hail damage on insurance costs are likewise reflected in the growing economy and real estate market.
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Many more people have moved to the area in the last 10 years, and they have built many new homes and businesses, Oney said. “The same storm will have a lot more to damage, and that’s one of the reasons why we’re seeing bigger claims,” he said.
Higher income households may be better able to absorb the cost of expensive repairs, according to Oney.,
“But for someone that has just enough money to pay the mortgage, the insurance, the property taxes, it can be a big hit when combined with the rapid price increases for groceries and other basic expenses.”
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