60% Of L.A Wildfire Homes Will Be Total Losses

Facebook Tweet LinkedIn

A new study from real estate research firm Corelogic shows that insured damages for the L.A. wildfires will reach $35 billion to $45 billion. That means there were billions of dollars in uninsured losses. Corelogic also estimates that 60% of these properties were total losses.

*America’s Climate Problem

*Hurricane Damage Hits $500 Billion

*New York City Hit By Fires

The overall estimate is based on 20,000 properties that were destroyed.

However, Corelogic thinks there was one aspect of the fires that may have been underestimated. “Although many of the homes left within the fire perimeters may look intact, when you peel back the surface, the walls often tell a different story — one that is often overlooked.” These experts also pointed out that even minor damage can take weeks to repair.

Partial Damage

This assumes there are enough contractors and materials to make a dent in the damage in the next few months.CoreLogic President of Global Insurance Solutions Garret Gray “Time is not our friend. Soot is corrosive. It eats away at whatever it’s on, so the integrity of whatever it’s sitting on is being degraded every day that it’s not able to be cleaned.”

Insurance Rates Rise

Add to this that many insurance companies will raise rates to extraordinary levels, if they do not pull out of the region completely. That, in turn, means many people will not be able to get mortgages. They will need to gamble that, in another fire, their homes will be total losses. And, on a scaling basis, home values could collapse due to lack of demand