According to a study by Core Logic, over 2.2 million homes in the U.S. are exposed to a very high risk of wildfire damage. The estimated reconstruction cost of the at risk homes is over $606 billion.
What's more, over 1 million of these homes fall into the highest wildfire risk segment.
Most of the risk is held in the 13 western most states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.
Source: Corelogic
The report further breaks down the extremely high wildfire risk in 3 major metropolitan areas: Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO, San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward, CA, and San Antonio-NewBraunfels, TX.
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood
Over 35,000 homes fall into the highest risk segment in Denver at an estimated reconstruction cost of nearly $11 billion. The 80439 zipcode or Evergreen Area contains the largest number of at risk homes.
San Francisco-Oakland-Hayward
This area has 5,806 homes in the highest risk catagory, but another 21,318 in the one just below it. Oakland - 94611 zipcode- has by far the most homes at risk with 1,059.
San Antonio-NewBraunfels
San Antonio, the fastest growing city in Texas last decade, has over 31,000 homes exposed to the highest level of wildfire risk with a combined reconstruction cost of over $7 billion. New Braunfels, Boerne, and Wimberley all have more than 2,900 homes in the highest risk catagory.
Why Is This Important?
2015 was one of the worst wildfire seasons on record with over 50,000 fires that burned over 9 million acres. These fires claim homes, cause serious personal injuries, and claim lives. Understanding the risk of your home or your prospective home, can make a huge difference. If you already own a high risk home, make an evacuation plan, be sure to have good fire insurance, and take steps to reduce the wildfire risk of your home.
Comments(0)