Cotality: Wildfire risk threatens $1.4T in properties across western states

More than 2.5 million properties across the 10 most exposed western states face a moderate or greater risk of wildfire damage, representing nearly $1.4 trillion in reconstruction cost value (RCV), according to Cotality’s 2026 Wildfire Risk Report. The analysis, released Wednesday, highlights a growing concern for insurers, reinsurers, investors and homeowners. It explains that losses are increasingly driven not only by wildfires but by conflagration, when fires spread structure to structure within neighborhoods. Risk concentrated in California, Colorado, Texas California remains the most exposed state, with 1.28 million at-risk properties and $850 billion in reconstruction cost value, the report found. But nearly half of all at-risk properties across the top 10 states (49.9%) are located outside California. Colorado and Texas together account for nearly 560,000 at-risk properties and $252 billion in RCV, almost matching the $277 billion of exposure across the remaining seven states combined. Oregon, Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Montana, Washington and Utah round out the 10 most exposed states. At the metro level, Los Angeles has the highest exposure with nearly 250,000 at-risk prope...