Texas Multifamily Quotes

Arlington holds an odd seat in the Texas apartment market. It sits between Dallas and Fort Worth in Tarrant County, ranks among the seven largest cities in the state at roughly 400,000 residents, and its rental housing looks nothing like what gets built downtown in either. Around 99 percent of Arlington rental communities are low-rise garden-style properties averaging about three stories, and only about 15 percent of the inventory has been delivered since 2000. That mix of sprawling roof area, frame construction and pre-2000 vintage is the defining fact about this city for an underwriter.

That stock is a legacy of how Arlington grew. The General Motors plant opened in 1954, Six Flags Over Texas opened in August 1961, and the Texas Rangers arrived in the early 1970s. Apartments went up fast to house that workforce, and by the late 1980s the council under Mayor Richard Greene was tightening multifamily standards in response to aging complexes.

Why Arlington Prices Differently Than Its Neighbors

• Hail frequency: National Weather Service records show Tarrant County has logged roughly 800 hailstorms since tracking began in 1955, more than any other Texas county.
• Roof area per insured dollar: Three-story garden product exposes far more roof surface per dollar of value than mid-rise construction. Hail rating is a roof-area problem, and Arlington is nearly all roof. Roof age then decides replacement cost versus actual cash value.

The Storm Record Behind Arlington Rates

• May 5, 1995, Mayfest: Hail up to 4.5 inches fell across Tarrant and Parker counties in the first single thunderstorm in the country to top a billion dollars in damage, and it is still the benchmark event underwriters reference.
• April 3, 2012 outbreak: Twenty-one tornadoes touched down across North Texas in about six and a half hours, with the heaviest concentration in the metroplex. The National Weather Service rated the Kennedale-Arlington tornado EF2, with winds near 135 mph, a 4.6-mile path and a maximum width of 150 yards, documenting collapsed exterior walls between I-20 and Pleasant Ridge Road.
• March 17, 2016: Morning storms crossed Arlington with hail up to tennis-ball size on the south side, and insured losses in Tarrant County alone exceeded 600 million dollars.
• June 2023: The June 11-16 severe weather week centered on DFW drove roughly 6 billion dollars in Texas insured wind and hail losses, part of 7 to 10 billion nationwide. Across that 2022-2024 stretch, 2 percent wind and hail deductibles largely displaced 1 percent here.

Submarket matters more than the city label. The Cultural District around AT&T Stadium, Globe Life Field and Texas Live! draws more than 15 million visitors a year and now includes new product like the eight-story One Rangers Way, delivered in 2024. Downtown and the blocks around the University of Texas at Arlington, which enrolls more than 42,000 students, carry a heavy student-tenant mix, while South Arlington holds much of the older workforce stock.

Compare how we structure coverage for Fort Worth apartment buildings and Dallas multifamily property insurance, or see a coastal wind market in our Houston multifamily insurance breakdown. Call (512) 893-3795.

Most Arlington apartment owners do not have a price problem. They have a terms problem. Two policies quoted within a few percent of each other can settle a hail loss hundreds of thousands apart depending on how the roof is valued, how the deductible is calculated, and whether a cosmetic exclusion sits in the schedule. Premiums here commonly land between a few hundred and roughly nine hundred dollars per unit annually, driven more by roof documentation than square footage.

The Roof Settlement Problem

• ACV roof schedules: Texas has among the highest adoption of actual cash value roof settlement in the country. The endorsement pays a depreciated share of replacement cost based on roof age, and in high-hail counties it commonly starts between roof year 10 and 15.
• Roof age defaults to building age: Most of these endorsements assume the roof is as old as the building unless you prove a full replacement by a qualified contractor, and overlays generally do not reset the clock. On a 30-building campus re-roofed over several seasons, missing permits can quietly push half the schedule to ACV. Tear-off invoices and permit records are what defend replacement cost.
• Cosmetic damage exclusions: These strip coverage for hail that dents metal without causing a leak, the exact pattern on the vents, flashing, gutters and condenser fins covering a garden property. On commercial apartment policies they are carrier and ISO proprietary forms that vary widely and must be read closely.

Wind and Hail Deductible Structure

• Percentage basis: Policies here typically carry 1 to 3 percent wind and hail deductibles, with 2 percent the norm.
• What it applies to: This detail decides the check. A deductible calculated on the total insured value of an entire schedule behaves very differently from one applied per damaged building, and per-building application is usually far better for the owner. If a carrier forces a high percentage to keep replacement cost, ask about a deductible buyback.

Liability in an Event-Driven City

• Habitational stays hard: Property capacity loosened heading into 2026, but apartment general liability did not. Expect scrutiny on security and prior claims.
• Event traffic: AT&T Stadium hosted nine 2026 FIFA World Cup matches including the July 14 semifinal, more than any other venue, and the INDYCAR street circuit around the stadium district debuted in March 2026 and returns annually. Properties there absorb heavy crowd and parking overflow.
• Student-heavy properties: Communities serving the University of Texas at Arlington see higher turnover and more party-related liability, and some carriers sublimit assault and battery there.

The Coverages Owners Skip

• Loss of rents: Twelve months is the default, but 18 is the honest number here, since roofing crews book solid for months after a regional hail event.
• Ordinance or law: Rebuild a damaged 1980s building and you rebuild to current code, and Coverages A, B and C pay that difference.
• Water and equipment: Aging supply lines and cast iron stacks in pre-1990 buildings drive steady attritional losses, and standard forms exclude mechanical breakdown.
• Freeze protection: The February 2021 statewide freeze burst pipes across North Texas apartment stock, and carriers now ask about cold-weather protocol.

Arlington regulates apartment property more actively than most Texas cities its size, and some of it is publicly visible to anyone underwriting your file.

The Multi-Family Property Inspection Program

• What it is: Arlington Code Compliance inspects apartment and extended-stay properties for fire hazards, structural defects and maintenance violations.
• Scores are public: The city publishes an interactive map of Arlington multifamily communities showing each property annual inspection score and rating plus the assigned officer, and documents its Risk Rating Scoring System.
• Why that matters: A low published score is a public record of deferred maintenance, exactly what an underwriter hunts for. A strong score is free supporting material.

Building and Fire Code

• I-Code adoption: Arlington adopts the International Building, Residential, Energy Conservation, Plumbing and Fuel Gas Codes with local amendments, plus the International Fire Code.
• Sprinkler standard: Arlington fire amendments call for NFPA 13R sprinkler protection throughout covered residential occupancies, including means of egress, patios and bathrooms. Older garden buildings stay grandfathered until substantial renovation, which is why ordinance or law coverage is not optional here.

Flood Risk Here Is Creeks, Not Coast

• The watersheds: Village Creek runs roughly 23 miles as the main inflow to Lake Arlington, and Rush Creek rises near Mansfield and runs about 12 miles before joining it. Johnson Creek crosses the stadium district.
• It has hit apartments before: Tropical Storm Hermine flooded more than 250 Arlington structures in September 2010, including about 50 along Rush Creek in Woodland Park, destroying dozens of apartment units. The city later bought roughly 23 acres of repetitive-loss property there for an 82-acre park.
• Arlington CRS Class 5: Arlington earned an improved Community Rating System Class 5 rating effective October 2021, worth up to a 25 percent discount on NFIP flood premiums inside the Special Flood Hazard Area and 10 percent outside it.
• No TWIA here: The Texas Windstorm Insurance Association covers the coastal catastrophe area only, so Tarrant County wind and hail is written entirely in standard and surplus lines.

Mitigation That Actually Moves Premium

• Class 4 impact-resistant roofing: Coverings meeting the UL 2218 Class 4 impact standard earn filed credits from most Texas carriers, commonly 10 to 35 percent on the wind and hail component. On a garden campus it is the highest-return capital item available.
• Per-building roof records: Replacement roofing must be permitted in Arlington, so keep a schedule of every building, install date and permit number as proof of roof age.

The same schedule prices differently across city lines. See our Dallas apartment insurance and Fort Worth multifamily insurance pages, or call (512) 893-3795.