Cost to rebuild homes damaged in wildfires could amount to $65B: report

Nearly 172,000 homes in Napa Valley and Santa Rosa are in the line of fire in Northern California as wildfires continue to swarm the region, the Wall Street Journal reported.

Most of the homes are low-risk but roughly 11,000 face significant damage, a CoreLogic Inc. report found.

Rebuilding the homes from scratch would cost a whopping $65 billion, according to CoreLogic. That estimation considers factors such as geography, labor and materials, and represents the absolute maximum cost.

“Although the majority of homes, 161,059, or 94 percent, are at Low or Moderate risk of damage, wildfire can easily expand to adjacent properties and cause significant damage even if a property is not considered high risk in its own right,” the report reads.

Homes in the area aren’t cheap, either. Average homes in the Napa and Santa Rosa metro cost about $599,000 — far greater than the country’s average of $201,900 — according to Zillow.

The fires spreading through Northern California have already claimed the lives of 15 individuals and destroyed much of the wine country. [WSJ] – Natalie Hoberman