You can check that here:
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Yes. Here in Colorado, some companies refuse to insure people who live in areas with high wildfire risk. That means folks in the high country and some along the Front Range can’t get coverage. The legislature established a plan of last resort last session but the limit of 750k for homeowners is inadequate, especially in the high country where home prices exceed 1M.
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We’re in So Cal, and this year switched insurance companies after 20 years. we were with Farmers for everything (cars and home) and are now with Mercury. I feel “lucky” that we were able to be insured pretty easily and our rates went down by about 8% overall.
Mercury did require some extra hoops to jump through, but I guess we just sit quiet now and not even consider changing.
Our entire county is just red on that map.
I do think there could be some cause for lawsuits. This house my friend is trying to buy hasn’t been assessed for fire danger. The insurance companies have told her east of this street and south of that street is not insurable. So, a house a block away is insurable but this house with no measurable increased risk is not, basically wiping out its value. The house hasn’t been assessed for its building materials, easement to brush, nothing. There’s no brush around this house.
I think in the not too distant future, there will be places where people live at their own risk. It makes no sense to keep building (or re-building) in places where a few years later the house just burns down again (or experiences any other natural disaster). Just look at the billions spent to shore up Fire Island - one major storm later it is as if nothing had been done. Mother Nature is definitely having the last laugh.
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Census tract level areas may be more informative.
However, there may be some outdated information. In one place I know of, the coastal flooding risk is listed as low on the FEMA map, but the place is building a flood control wall.
What is the criteria for this map? Is it fire danger? For example LA is red but SF is not so it use not be earthquake related
Agree about the census tract view. When I chose that and then drilled down, my county is totally red, but in the census tract view, my census tract is yellow (relatively moderate – so relieved), but a few blocks in one direction is blue(relatively low) and a few blocks the other is light red (relatively high)!
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If you zoom in and click on the county it tells you where you stand on many types of risk. My county in MA is yellow. I clicked and found the two highest risks are lightning and ice storms.
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So if I do the census tract view, the neighborhoods now show dark or light red. A street may separate the dark from the light red with no discernible difference is risk. This tract I’m talking about has never burned and there have been houses there at least 50-75 years. I can understand not building in previous burn areas, but based on these new policies there will be hundreds of thousands of homes that are not insurable in areas where there’s never been a fire.
Literally our mall is in a dark red area, along with all sorts of condos. That area is in the center of town, landlocked by concrete. There’s no brush anywhere near there…
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Everywhere can have fires. The Marshall Fire that happened just south of Boulder was almost entirely in subdivisions and new, ‘fire code’ buildings. A brand new hotel burned. It was right near a highway so fire equipment could get in and out, but the winds just took the fire quickly out of control. 1000 homes and businesses were burned. One of the ways it spread so fast was the houses were connected by wooden fences
Home insurance also isn’t just for fire. Hail damage, tornado (had one hit a subdivision this June), things falling on the house like trees, some water damage (usually groundwater and not floods).
All of us who weren’t in the fire also had our insurance rates raised to cover those loses.
You can’t ‘go naked’ if you have a mortgage. The lender will ‘force place’ insurance.
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We can’t find insurance for our cabin in the Maine mountains because it’s so remote. And there’s no fire hydrant nearby. Apparently this wasn’t an issue in the past, but I was told that 9/11 changed everything. So every time we drive up, I’m relieved that it hasn’t burned down!
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Do you own it outright, so you just go without insurance?
If you click on the area, the panel at the right lists the specific risk for different criteria. For example, my county is dark red. However, in census view it is divided to my specific neighborhood which shows a blue color an the following risks:
Earthquake – Moderate (82)
Wildfire – Low (77)
Landslide – Low (50)
Heat Wave – Low (30)
All Others – Very Low or Not Applicable
Overall Risk – Very Low (20th percentile nationally, 3rd percentile within California)
Expected Annual Loss – Low
Social Vulnerability – Very Low
Community Resilience – Very Low
You can also have the map show you a specific risk using the drop-down menu at the top.
The Boulder fire also had some homes that had been there 50+ years, long before sewerage and water, but the housing projects had sprung up in the last 20, most in the last 10. Part of the rebuilding problem is that all the infrastructure was put in by developers and now needs to be replaced, but the same insurance company didn’t insure every home, so who is going to replace the streets, the utilities, the parks and curbs and signs and fire hydrants? The cities and counties can’t afford to do it because those things were all developer responsibilities. Some people want to rebuild and others just want the money to buy a home somewhere else.
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Yes. We were able to build it affordably, over a long period of time. The logs were milled on our property and we did the finish work ourselves. My husband still needs to build the stairs at the side porch and replace the “temporary” stairs at the front porch, even though we moved into the cabin in 2004. 
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This is the area in question:
Avalanche Not Applicable
Coastal Flooding No Rating
Cold Wave No Rating
Drought* No Rating
Earthquake Very High Score 99.3
Hail Very Low Score 12.6
Heat Wave Relatively Low Score 47.9
Hurricane Not Applicable
Ice Storm Not Applicable
Landslide Relatively Moderate Score 81.0
Lightning Very Low Score 13.7
Riverine Flooding Relatively Low Score 47.0
Strong Wind Very Low Score 14.1
Tornado Very Low Score 27.9
Tsunami No Rating Score 0.0
Volcanic Activity Not Applicable
Wildfire Relatively High Score 98.3
Winter Weather Relatively Low Score 35.0
If you click on the area, which risk does it say is high? Wildfires are just one of the risks among others like earthquakes, coastal flooding, riverine flooding, heat wave, etc… Social vulnerability (appears mostly a proxy for poverty) and (lack of) community resilience (though this is only at the county level) is also a factor in the overall risk rating.
My census tract is light blue, so “relatively low” risk, though we’re close to a yellow “relatively moderate” risk area. And we are not living in a huge house either. But when we move, we’ll definitely be moving to a light blue or dark blue area (relatively low or very low).
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