Everything is bigger in Texas, even our catastrophic insurance losses. But all joking aside, Texas ended 2015 with the highest number of total losses reported to insurance companies than any other state. In fact with Texas at the number one spot, we are triple that of the number two slot-California.
2015 was a bad weather year for Texas with Tornadoes, hailstorms and fires all racking up $3.2 billion in paid insurance claims, according to the Austin-based Insurance Council of Texas. Driving this staggering 3.2 billion in claims, Texas also gets the crown for having triple the number claims and triple the dollar amount in losses next to California and the rest of the states on the top of the list.
A that latter part is good for RV repair companies because it means three times the work, but in catastrophic losses, nobody wins. In fact, it could even result in higher insurance rates for Texas RV owners.
But don’t panic just yet. The one thing that keeps insurance rates down, is a gigantic pool of insured RV’s and also in 2015, the Recreational Vehicle Industry Association (RVIA)’s RV Consumer Demographic Profile shows that RV ownership has reached a new peak. The research, conducted by Dr. Richard Curtin, RV industry analyst and director of consumer surveys at the University of Michigan, reveals the number of RV-owning households has grown to a new peak of 8.9 million households, up from 7.9 million in 2005. According to the report, 8.5% of U.S. households now own RVs, up from 8.0% in 2005.
But now back to the weather. Texas had 16 catastrophic weather events (defined as any storm that causes more than $25 million in insured losses) last year, totaling $3.2 billion. The next-highest state was California, with $1.2 billion.
Texas had 466,250 insurance claims (repairable claims, not losses) from catastrophic weather events. The next-highest state, Massachusetts, had 139,750
Now keep in mind these are all insured losses such as auto collision and homeowners losses and claims combined, not just RV insurance claims. however, these numbers don’t include our flood losses, which were in the hundreds of millions of dollars, and we know that Texas had a couple of major floods in 2015.
The 2015 tally of insured losses was prepared by Property Claim Services, that monitors all states’ insured losses, including homeowner, commercial property and auto insurance, from catastrophic weather events. Flood losses were provided by the National Flood Insurance Program, which is part of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
So what are the takeaways for Texas RV owners based on this information?
For starters, the volume of claims will be higher at RV repair shops, especially at RV dealers who are better equipped at selling an RV than they are at reaping them, this could mean delays at some shops (but not all).
If these weather events continue, and Texas stays at the top of the list, then RV insurance rates (and all insurance rates) in Texas could see some increases.
Lastly, with more RV owners entering the marketplace, demand for repair services and replacement parts could increase, a,so leading to potential shortages or wait times.
For now this is nothing to panic about, we are simply reporting on the trends that might impact our customer base here in the Dallas Ft.Worth area of Texas, but we do serve all RV owners all over the US.