SD ranks third in U.S. for wildfire risk, repair costs nearly doubled since 2019

Rhea Caoile
·2 min read
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SD ranks third in U.S. for wildfire risk, repair costs nearly doubled since 2019

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Wildfire season in California has just begun and Cal Fire has already reported nearly 800 wildfires since the start of the year.

Last week, a brush fire that burned 18 acres in rural East County was previously believed to have the potential to spread to 100 acres.

According to a recent analysis by CoreLogic, the top four places with the highest wildfire risk this year are the same as 2019, which includes the San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad area.

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Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim tops the list at No. 1, followed by Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario at No. 2. Meanwhile, San Diego-Chula Vista-Carlsbad is at No. 3 and Sacramento-Roseville-Folsom is at No. 4.

However, although the rankings have remained the same as 2019, the number of homes at high-extreme wildfire risk and cost value for reconstruction have nearly doubled, according to CoreLogic.

Locally, in the San Diego region, there were over 75,000 homes deemed at high-extreme risk in 2019. In 2024, that number has increased to more than 123,000. Meanwhile, the reconstruction cost value has gone up from $35.81 billion in 2019 to $75.57 in 2024.

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Many of the places in the top 15 areas for high-extreme wildfire risk in the nation also happen to be in California, which currently leads the U.S. in housing shortages. In fact, 10 of the 15 areas with the highest wildfire risk in the country are in the Golden State.

According to CoreLogic, the housing shortage means many new homes will be built in a space known as the wildland-urban interface, which refers to large, open areas of natural vegetation that tend to be the focus of suburban developments. Unfortunately, experts believe building homes in the wildland-urban interface could raise the risk of wildfire ignition due to its proximity to wildland areas.

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