The excess and surplus lines homeowners market is no longer primarily a coastal story. Hail, convective storms, and admitted carrier pullbacks are pushing homeowners across the US interior into the non-admitted market. Few in the industry anticipated the pace.
Direct E&S homeowners premiums rose 29.5% in 2025 to $4.14 billion, according to a new S&P Global Market Intelligence report. That marked the third consecutive year of 20%-plus growth for the segment.
By contrast, the broader E&S market posted its first single-digit expansion rate since 2018. The fastest gains are in states most brokers would not traditionally associate with surplus lines homeowners placements.
Colorado's E&S homeowners premiums reached $91.9 million in 2025, up 63.7% over the prior year. The report projects the state's volume to surpass $100 million in 2026. Texas posted 63.4% growth to $453.6 million. Minnesota's E&S homeowners premiums more than tripled in a single year, from $7 million to $22.8 million. In each state, severe convective storms and hail losses drove admitted carriers to curtail appetite. The non-admitted market filled the gap.
Hail's role is more than anecdotal. In 2025, 33% of all roofing claims were designated catastrophe hail, up from 19% in 2021, per Verisk data cited by S&P Global Market Intelligence. The average cost to replace a roof reached $17,631 in 2025.
A separate Cotality research identifies hail as the primary peril driving insured losses across severe convective storm events. In an active season, potential insured losses can rival those of a major hurricane.
California, Florida, and Texas still account for roughly 64% of total US E&S homeowners direct premiums, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. California's E&S market share reached 7.3% of total homeowners premiums in 2025, up from 6.2% the prior year. That growth came despite regulatory reforms designed to draw admitted insurers back.
In California, non-admitted coverage has become a structural condition rather than a cyclical one. The E&S market there is increasingly writing urban and standard-risk properties alongside the hard-to-place risks it was originally built to serve.
S&P Global Market Intelligence identified Chubb as the largest E&S homeowners insurer nationally in 2025, with $416.5 million in premiums. Orion180 Insurance Co. ranked as the fastest-growing among the nation's 10 largest E&S homeowners writers. The company filed an S-1 registration statement with the SEC on the same day the report was published.
The report cautions that growth may moderate in 2026 as competition increases and some carriers adjust limits or pricing. The structural shift driving the inland expansion, however, appears likely to outlast any near-term softening.
