Wildfire Risk Score: What It Means for Your Home Insurance

Starting July 1, 2026, every California insurer has to hand you a number it has been quietly using against you for years: your home’s wildfire risk score. The picture is national, not just Californian. About 1 in 5 single-family homes in the United States carry a wildfire risk score of 3 or higher on the scale now built into Realtor.com and Redfin listings. That’s 20.2% of homes, worth a combined $8.8 trillion, according to First Street Foundation data. If you don’t know your number, your insurer already does, and it has been pricing your policy accordingly.

Your wildfire risk score is no longer a figure visible only to underwriters. It shapes what you pay, whether your insurer renews you, and whether you end up on your state’s FAIR plan. Here’s what the score actually measures, how to find yours, and what to do if it’s higher than you’d like.

What Is a Wildfire Risk Score, and Who Sees It?

There isn’t one universal wildfire risk score. Homeowners run into two overlapping systems, and it helps to know which one you’re looking at.

The consumer-facing score is First Street Foundation’s Fire Factor, built into Realtor.com, Redfin, and other real estate sites. It rates a property from 1 (minimal risk) to 10 (extreme risk) based on the probability of that specific parcel being in a wildfire over the next 30 years. A score of 1 corresponds to roughly 0% modeled chance; a 10 means better than a 36% chance. Nationally, 44.1% of single-family home value sits at score 1 and 32.9% at score 2, but the remaining fifth of homes, the 3-and-up tier, carries a disproportionate share of both risk and rebuilding cost.

The insurer-facing score is different. Most carriers rely on Verisk’s FireLine model, the most widely used wildfire risk tool in the insurance industry, which scores properties from 0 (lowest) to 30 using vegetation, slope, and fire-department access data. About 73% of FireLine scores nationwide come back at 0 or 1, indicating negligible to low risk. The pricing pressure homeowners are feeling comes from the roughly 15% of properties scoring 4 or higher, which insurers increasingly price with forward-looking catastrophe models from Verisk, Karen Clark & Company, or Moody’s RMS rather than historical loss averages alone.

These two scores aren’t identical, but they’re built from overlapping inputs: vegetation density, slope, historical fire proximity, and structure spacing. If your Fire Factor reads elevated, assume your insurer’s internal number is elevated too, and plan accordingly.

California’s New Wildfire Risk Score Disclosure Law

The July 1, 2026 disclosure requirement didn’t arrive alone. It’s the latest piece of a run of California insurance laws aimed at wildfire transparency, several of which took effect January 1, 2026:

• The Insurance and Wildfire Safety Act (AB 1) requires California’s insurance regulators to regularly review and update the “Safer from Wildfires” discount rules, so the mitigation work that qualifies for a premium credit keeps pace with current science.
• The California Wildfire Public Model Act (SB 429) funds the nation’s first publicly available wildfire loss catastrophe model, giving homeowners and regulators an independent benchmark to compare against the proprietary models insurers use to justify rate increases.
• SB 495 eliminated the old requirement that wildfire survivors submit an itemized list of every destroyed possession to get paid. Insurers must now pay 60% of contents coverage (capped at $350,000) automatically after a qualifying total loss; homeowners who do have a detailed inventory can still collect up to 100%.
• SB 547 extends the one-year non-renewal protection homeowners get after a wildfire to HOAs, condos, small businesses, and nonprofits.

The wildfire risk score disclosure requirement builds directly on that foundation: insurers must now share the score behind your renewal pricing instead of leaving you to guess why your premium moved. If you’re outside California, pay attention anyway. Colorado has adopted a comparable disclosure right, and this kind of requirement tends to spread state by state once one large insurance market adopts it.

How to Find Your Home’s Wildfire Risk Score

You don’t have to wait for a renewal notice to see where you stand.

1. Check Realtor.com or Redfin. Search your address and look for the Fire Factor rating. It’s free, requires no account for the basic score, and updates with First Street’s climate-adjusted 30-year modeling.
2. Ask your insurer directly at renewal. If you’re in California, the score is now required disclosure. Ask specifically which model produced it (Verisk, KCC, or Moody’s RMS), since the number can shift meaningfully depending on the vendor.
3. Cross-check your state’s hazard severity maps. CAL FIRE’s Fire Hazard Severity Zone viewer shows parcel-level zoning in California; most other Western states publish similar wildfire hazard maps through their state forestry agency.
4. Pull the score before you make an offer, not after you close. For buyers, understanding a property’s Fire Factor and county-level exposure is one of the most practical pieces of insurance due diligence available before signing. A high score can mean no admitted-market carrier will write you on day one, pushing you straight to a surplus lines policy or your state’s FAIR plan.

Why Your Wildfire Risk Score Might Be Higher Than You Expect

Wildfire scoring runs on more than “is this California.” Slope steepness matters because fire moves faster uphill. Vegetation type and density matter more than raw acreage of open land. Distance to a fire hydrant or paved access road factors in because it determines how fast crews can respond. And a growing number of models now weigh ember exposure from neighboring parcels, not just your own lot.

That last point explains a common surprise. A homeowner who cleared brush, upgraded the roof, and installed ember-resistant vents can still carry an elevated score, because a neighbor’s overgrown hillside or wood shake roof sits within ember range. Wildfire risk is increasingly modeled at the community level, which is why mitigation programs like Firewise USA and local Community Wildfire Protection Plans matter alongside anything you do on your own property.

It also means county-level averages can mislead. Solano County, for example, has some of the lowest wildfire threat scores and insurance costs in the entire Bay Area region. That doesn’t mean every parcel in a “safe” county scores low. A single property tucked against open grassland or positioned high on a ridge can score well above its county’s median. Check the parcel, not just the zip code.

How Mitigation Lowers Your Score and Your Premium

The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety’s Wildfire Prepared Home program breaks mitigation into two defensible-space zones, and both show up in insurer discount calculations:

• The 0–5 foot noncombustible zone immediately surrounding your home and any attachments (decks, stairs, overhead structures). This ring should be bare dirt, gravel, pavers, or stone: no mulch, no stored items, no plants closer than 5 feet from the structure.
• The 5–30 foot defensible space zone requires pruned trees (6 feet of clearance from the ground, or one-third of the tree’s height), at least 10 feet of horizontal spacing between tree crowns, grass kept under 4 inches, and woodpiles at least 30 feet from the building.

On the structure itself, insurers look for a Class A fire-rated roof, ember-resistant vents (1/8-inch metal mesh), at least 6 inches of noncombustible material at the base of exterior walls, and dual-pane tempered-glass windows.

The payoff is concrete. Mercury Insurance’s California wildfire mitigation program, for example, offers tiered discounts on the wildfire-peril portion of your premium: 12.5–22.5% for baseline defensible space, 20–35% for enhanced vegetation management and structural upgrades, and 25–45% for comprehensive mitigation. Homes that earn a formal IBHS Wildfire Prepared Home designation can qualify for 22.5–37.5% off, with the enhanced “Plus” designation pushing that to 30–50%. Fire-resistive construction (noncombustible framing and exterior materials determined at the time a home is built) can discount the wildfire-peril premium by up to 60%.

Keep dated proof of every upgrade. An app like Dib can log the ember-resistant vents, defensible-space clearing receipts, and roofing invoices in one place, so you have documentation ready when an underwriter asks what mitigation work actually happened and when. Because AB 1 requires California regulators to keep updating which mitigation measures qualify for discounts, ask your agent yearly which credits currently apply to your specific upgrades. The list is expanding, not fixed.

If a High Score Pushes You Toward the FAIR Plan

If your wildfire risk score is high enough that no admitted carrier will write you, or you’ve already received a non-renewal notice, your state’s FAIR plan becomes the backstop insurer. That’s worth understanding before you’re forced into it: FAIR plans typically cover fire, lightning, smoke, and internal explosion only, at actual cash value rather than replacement cost, with no personal liability or theft coverage. Our guide to state FAIR plan coverage gaps walks through what’s missing and why most homeowners pair a FAIR plan with a Difference in Conditions policy to restore the rest.

California’s FAIR Plan is not a cheap fallback anymore, either. The plan’s dwelling rate is set to rise a statewide average of 29.1% for policies renewing after October 15, 2026, and a Los Angeles County judge upheld the wildfire-loss surcharge mechanism that helped fund the plan’s $1 billion bailout following the January 2025 fires. The cost of being on the FAIR plan is climbing right alongside admitted-market premiums. If you’ve received a non-renewal notice, our step-by-step non-renewal guide covers your options and timeline before the FAIR plan becomes your only choice.

Your Wildfire Risk Score Action Plan

• This week: look up your address’s Fire Factor on Realtor.com or Redfin, and if you’re due for a California renewal, ask your agent for the score and model behind it.
• This month: walk your property and check the 0–5 foot and 5–30 foot zones: clear roof and gutter debris, and move woodpiles at least 30 feet from the structure.
• This season: get a written estimate from your agent on what discount a specific mitigation upgrade would actually earn before you pay for it, so you know the payback.
• If you’re house hunting: pull the Fire Factor and check county-level Wildland-Urban Interface exposure before you write an offer, not after you close. If you already own in a high-risk area, our California wildfire inventory guide covers how to document your home and mitigation upgrades in case you ever need to file a claim.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a wildfire risk score? It’s a numeric estimate of how likely a specific property is to be affected by wildfire, based on vegetation, slope, historical fire data, and climate projections. Consumers typically see First Street Foundation’s Fire Factor (1–10 scale) on real estate sites, while insurers price policies using separate models like Verisk’s FireLine (0–30 scale) or newer catastrophe models.

Is my wildfire risk score the same number my insurer uses? Not exactly. Fire Factor is a consumer-facing estimate built for buyers and homeowners. Insurers use their own proprietary scores or licensed catastrophe models (Verisk, Karen Clark & Company, or Moody’s RMS) for actual underwriting and rate filings. The two are correlated but rarely identical.

Can I find my home’s wildfire risk score for free? Yes. Search your address on Realtor.com or Redfin to see the Fire Factor score at no cost. California homeowners can also request the specific score behind their premium directly from their insurer starting with 2026 renewals, under the state’s new disclosure law.

Does mitigation actually lower my insurance premium? Yes, when it’s documented and verified. Insurer discount programs in California range from roughly 12.5% for baseline defensible space to as much as 60% off the wildfire-peril premium for certified fire-resistive construction, depending on the carrier and the level of mitigation completed.

What happens if my wildfire risk score gets me dropped by my insurer? You’ll typically have a window (often 60 days) to find replacement coverage before your state’s FAIR plan becomes your default option. Start by requesting quotes from an independent agent who can shop multiple carriers before that window closes.

Do states outside California require wildfire risk score disclosure? Colorado has adopted a similar homeowner disclosure right, and momentum is building in other wildfire-exposed Western states. Check your state department of insurance’s website for the current rule where you live, since this is an active and fast-moving area of insurance regulation.