From CoreLogic:
Nearly 900,000 single-family homes across 13 states in the western U.S. are currently designated at “High” or “Very High” risk for wildfire damage, representing a combined total reconstruction value estimated at more than $237 billion. Of the total homes identified, just over 192,000 homes fall into the “Very High Risk” category alone, with total reconstruction cost valued at more than $49.6 billion.
The CoreLogic Wildfire Risk analysis designates risk levels as “Very High,” “High,” “Moderate” and “Low.” Two additional categories, “Urban” and “Agriculture” indicate homes at even lower risk. Homes designated as “Urban” are located in areas with a dense concentration of buildings and infrastructure to such an extent that little natural vegetation exists to support a wildfire. Homes designated as “Agriculture” are located in areas comprised of row crops, orchards/vineyards or other specific land use that is typically irrigated. Even if it is not irrigated, the crops are nourished and healthy with no ground litter present, and therefore, the vegetation is unlikely to support or enhance a wildfire.
The analysis also assigns a numeric risk score to each property, ranging from 1 to 100. This separate score indicates the level of susceptibility to wildfire, as well as the risk associated with the property being located in close proximity to another high-risk property or area. The score designation is important since wildfire can easily expand to adjacent properties and cause significant damage even if that property was not originally considered high risk. When expanding the analysis to include the numeric score, more than 1.1 million homes fall under the highest Wildfire Risk Score segment (81-100), representing a combined potential reconstruction value of more than $268.5 billion
Total U.S. Properties at Risk and Reconstruction Values by Risk Category
Wildfire Risk Level | Total Properties | Reconstruction Cost |
Very High | 192,242 | $49,608,484,867 |
High | 704,860 | $187,661,388,760 |
Moderate | 1,351,313 | $292,811,373,342 |
Low | 1,378,104 | $334,120,053,463 |
Agriculture | 993,580 | $244,167,729,666 |
Urban | 23,778,799 | $6,094,873,170,789 |
Total: | 28,398,898 | $7,203,242,200,887 |
Total U.S. Properties at Risk and Reconstruction Values by Numeric Risk Score
(1-100) | Total Properties | Reconstruction Cost |
81-100 | 1,101,131 | $268,549,008,333 |
61-80 | 1,193,814 | $338,395,410,748 |
51-60 | 487,013 | $131,081,392,801 |
1-50 | 25,616,940 | $6,465,216,389,005 |
Total: | 28,398,898 | $7,203,242,200,887 |
The states most commonly associated with wildfires also contain the most properties at risk – California, Colorado and Texas have the largest number of residential properties categorized as “Very High Risk,” with a combined reconstruction value exceeding $36 billion. Including homes located in the “High Risk” category, the reconstruction value is more than $188 billion for these three states. When analyzed by risk score, 816,515 homes with reconstruction costs valued at more than $206.5 billion fall into the highest risk segment of 81-100.
Limiting the evaluation to property-level risk strictly in the “Very High” category, California tops the list of states analyzed with a total of 50,905 homes falling into that group. Comparatively, when assigning the Wildfire Risk Score, Texas takes the top spot with 451,848 homes scoring in the 81-100 highest-risk range.
Total Properties at Risk by State and Risk Category
State | Low | Moderate | High | Very High | Agriculture | Urban | Total |
AZ | 43,273 | 4,443 | 8,488 | 8,089 | 5,332 | 1,910,771 | 1,980,396 |
CA | 221,104 | 169,468 | 255,023 | 50,905 | 146,013 | 8,208,625 | 9,051,138 |
CO | 70,935 | 38,628 | 50,009 | 49,667 | 66,876 | 1,482,352 | 1,758,467 |
ID | 37,352 | 22,968 | 15,197 | 11,078 | 86,542 | 384,018 | 557,155 |
MT | 60,588 | 18,903 | 9,601 | 10,218 | 22,516 | 194,927 | 316,753 |
NV | 17,845 | 20,520 | 8,653 | 281 | 3,166 | 816,975 | 867,440 |
NM | 55,969 | 19,554 | 25,766 | 9,481 | 16,200 | 483,282 | 610,252 |
OK | 165,009 | 88,642 | 187 | 0 | 33,225 | 968,210 | 1,255,273 |
OR | 37,137 | 41,160 | 51,872 | 13,788 | 157,749 | 938,664 | 1,240,370 |
TX | 332,766 | 829,457 | 261,855 | 35,016 | 175,691 | 5,960,221 | 7,595,006 |
UT | 11,185 | 13,590 | 3,441 | 68 | 31,825 | 681,016 | 741,125 |
WA | 308,066 | 72,069 | 12,509 | 1,997 | 219,334 | 1,625,394 | 2,239,369 |
WY | 16,875 | 11,911 | 2,259 | 1,654 | 29,111 | 124,344 | 186,154 |
Total | 1,378,104 | 1,351,313 | 704,860 | 192,242 | 993,580 | 23,778,799 | 28,398,898 |
Total Properties at Risk by State and Numerical Risk Score
State | 1-50 | 51-60 | 61-80 | 81-100 | Total |
AZ | 1,919,351 | 14,308 | 27,159 | 19,578 | 1,980,396 |
CA | 8,286,708 | 133,654 | 367,457 | 263,319 | 9,051,138 |
CO | 1,454,787 | 52,823 | 122,509 | 128,348 | 1,758,467 |
ID | 476,310 | 9,554 | 27,868 | 43,423 | 557,155 |
MT | 243,990 | 13,114 | 27,301 | 32,348 | 316,753 |
NV | 848,682 | 2,337 | 9,184 | 7,237 | 867,440 |
NM | 523,755 | 14,487 | 32,139 | 39,871 | 610,252 |
OK | 1,250,888 | 1,431 | 2,219 | 735 | 1,255,273 |
OR | 1,091,300 | 22,616 | 46,655 | 79,799 | 1,240,370 |
TX | 6,458,363 | 197,548 | 487,247 | 451,848 | 7,595,006 |
UT | 693,256 | 14,713 | 24,311 | 8,845 | 741,125 |
WA | 2,192,567 | 8,662 | 17,001 | 21,139 | 2,239,369 |
WY | 176,983 | 1,766 | 2,764 | 4,641 | 186,154 |
Total | 25,616,940 | 487,013 | 1,193,814 | 1,101,131 | 28,398,898 |
Reconstruction Values by State and Numerical Risk Score
State | 1-50 | 51-60 | 61-80 | 81-100 |
AZ | $369,191,090,202 | $2,781,562,044 | $5,612,822,008 | $4,002,789,607 |
CA | $2,785,871,424,591 | $53,258,974,686 | $153,067,995,013 | $88,448,970,333 |
CO | $333,552,521,110 | $13,769,558,737 | $33,846,313,158 | $36,107,351,913 |
ID | $102,894,072,845 | $2,426,687,082 | $6,899,872,812 | $10,300,994,948 |
MT | $52,685,950,526 | $2,997,541,855 | $6,338,603,322 | $7,639,941,924 |
NV | $216,436,292,731 | $624,126,373 | $3,860,921,144 | $3,188,829,537 |
NM | $105,891,175,664 | $3,334,262,905 | $7,919,619,903 | $10,468,473,653 |
OK | $230,716,181,496 | $235,452,854 | $370,084,424 | $124,431,936 |
OR | $248,596,738,298 | $5,247,235,235 | $11,061,921,922 | $18,192,420,905 |
TX | $1,276,614,038,497 | $39,753,699,730 | $97,535,512,589 | $82,027,014,100 |
UT | $159,359,659,455 | $4,309,214,977 | $7,363,299,947 | $2,115,609,007 |
WA | $547,066,785,312 | $1,964,631,216 | $3,905,374,051 | $4,938,186,894 |
WY | $36,340,458,278 | $378,445,107 | $613,070,455 | $993,993,576 |
Total | $6,465,216,389,005 | $131,081,392,801 | $338,395,410,748 | $268,549,008,333 |
At the CBSA (Core Based Statistical Area) level, Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, Colo. ranks first for the most number of homes at “Very High” risk out of the 258 CBSAs analyzed. Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. comes in a close second, followed by Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Calif.
When ranking CBSAs based on Wildfire Risk Score, Riverside-San-Bernardino-Ontario, Calif. takes the top spot for the most number of homes that fall under the highest risk segment of 81-100, followed by Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, Calif. and Austin-Round Rock, Texas.
Top 10 CBSAs Ranked by Homes at Very High Risk
CBSA | Very High # Homes | Home Reconstruction Value |
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 17,860 | $5,358,513,217 |
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 14,249 | $4,233,998,840 |
Sacramento-Roseville-Arden-Arcade, CA | 9,698 | $3,351,781,562 |
Bend-Redmond, OR | 9,128 | $2,328,466,791 |
Colorado Springs, CO | 7,296 | $2,086,189,220 |
Durango, CO | 6,052 | $1,776,710,340 |
Fort Collins, CO | 4,609 | $903,336,600 |
Truckee-Grass Valley, CA | 4,569 | $1,430,020,245 |
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 4,219 | $917,157,644 |
Flagstaff, AZ | 4,109 | $753,176,500 |
Top 10 CBSAs Ranked by Numerical Risk Score
CBSA | 81-100 Risk Score | Home Reconstruction Value |
Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, CA | 50,605 | $14,805,549,511 |
Sacramento–Roseville–Arden-Arcade, CA | 42,042 | $15,875,023,943 |
Austin-Round Rock, TX | 35,807 | $9,019,956,767 |
Denver-Aurora-Lakewood, CO | 35,174 | $10,807,628,461 |
San Antonio-New Braunfels, TX | 31,350 | $7,097,211,479 |
Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA | 17,006 | $8,654,562,030 |
Chico, CA | 15,103 | $3,754,593,902 |
Colorado Springs, CO | 14,990 | $4,408,080,237 |
Truckee-Grass Valley, CA | 14,671 | $4,945,547,724 |
Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX | 14,092 | $3,063,417,604 |
*Additional CBSA-level data may be available upon request.
To enhance accuracy, this CoreLogic wildfire analysis has been expanded from prior annual analyses to encompass additional categories of single-family residential structures including mobile homes, duplexes, manufactured homes and cabins, among other non-traditional home types. The values represent estimates of reconstruction costs, taking into account labor and materials, and are based on 100-percent or total destruction of the residential structure. Depending upon the size of the wildfire, there may be less than 100-percent damage to the residence, which would result in a lower realized reconstruction cost.
With any large assessment the devil is in the details. The fact that their maps shows all of Oregon except the Willamette valley as at “High-Very High” risk of wildfire raise some questions. I wish they included some detail on their methods in the report.
I would be interested to see the criteria they used for determining the category, which seems to describe hazard within the property line, and hazard scale, which seems to be based outside the property line. They mentioned specifically the potential hazard of fire brands being generated from vegetation fuels.