“The destruction caused by these fires is anticipated to be the most expensive in the state’s history with effects on the insurance industry that will persist into the future. This event highlights the paramount challenge for homeowners and the insurers that support them – the increasing density of homes and properties near the wildlife-urban interface,” said Tom Larsen, senior director of CoreLogic Insurance Solutions. “Los Angeles is a resilient community, and as they look to rebuild it will be essential to design or redesign with mitigation practices in mind, so an event of this magnitude never happens again.”
In an interview with HousingWire, Larsen discussed how CoreLogic uses aerial data and imagery to get a glimpse at not only the destroyed structures in LA by the fires but also structures impacted by smoke and other hazards.
“We estimate that somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 homes were sufficiently damaged and that those people, the occupants, are looking for replacement housing, subsequent housing, and that’s quite a pulse on the demand. And we’ve seen some of the indicators of prices going up, certainly in other markets we’ve seen those big increases, but we don’t have a number estimate of what’s occurring,” Larsen shared.
“As for California’s ongoing insurance crisis, this isn’t going to make it better,” Larsen continued. “We’re trying to analyze the reconstruction value of the homes in terms of insurance…We’re using that on every home in the area to come up with our estimates, using data to create a valuation model for how much the home costs and payout for contents.”
Find all of our wildfire coverage here.
