The Car Insurance Tightrope in Texas
Stories from Harris County on Affordability & Fair Pricing
The cost of car insurance is a growing part of monthly budgets, and Texas requires that drivers maintain a basic level of liability insurance. Surging costs can lead people to forgo car insurance to make ends meet, and pricing in the market is creating barriers for low- and moderate-income Texans.
This report focuses on insights from a focus group in Harris County, revealing how drivers are navigating an increasingly expensive car insurance market.
This is the first report in a series, as we will hold focus groups in other regions of Texas to examine this issue with subsequent reports.
Report Authors
Select Top Findings For This Report
- As of September 2025, approximately 12 percent of Texas car owners are uninsured, with the rates reaching 14% to over 20% in 32 counties, including both large urban and smaller rural counties.
- In Harris County, 14.44% of registered vehicles are uninsured.
- Most participants in the focus group had car insurance and paid, on average, $238 per month per car, or $2,856 per year.
- Those with both car insurance and a car payment reported spending, on average, approximately 13% of their monthly household expenses on car payments and 10% of their monthly household expenses on car insurance. Generally, 2% of a monthly budget is the target amount for affordable car insurance. On average, focus group participants paid five times that target amount, indicating that their car insurance is extremely unaffordable.
- Seven participants (47%) noted that they have gone without car insurance while owning a car, and almost all stated that the high cost of car insurance is what prevented them from having it.
- Participants discussed car insurance pricing factors. They rated pricing based on gender, credit score, age, marital status, zip code, and no-fault accidents as unfair.
- Participants viewed at-fault accidents, tickets, and natural disasters as fair factors to consider when pricing car insurance.