California's housing market has struggled since the Tubbs Fire in October 2017, which not only marked the start of the state's "mega-fire era," as described by The Washington Post, but also kicked off a broader problem of fire-driven gentrification.
Because many of those affected by the 2017 fires lacked decent insurance or funds to repair their homes, they were forced to leave the areas in which they had always lived. But those who remained tended to be wealthier, "a trend helping remake and re-sort communities across the state by rich and poor," the Post writes. In fact, California "homebuyers paid a 46 percent premium to live in homes with a high wildfire risk compared to homes with a low wildfire risk" in 2022, USA Today reports.
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