Homes With A Higher Fire Risk Sell For More Than Low-Risk Homes

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Homes With A Higher Fire Risk Sell For More Than Low-Risk Homes The price premium for high-risk homes has surged during the pandemic. A new report from Redfin reveals that the median sale price of homes with high fire risk was $550,500 in April, compared with $431,300 for homes with low fire risk. The median sale price of high-risk homes was up 51.7% in April from two years earlier, while the median sale price of low-risk homes was up 40.9%. "Suburban homes tend to be more expensive because they're large, and demand for large homes skyrocketed during the pandemic as Americans sought respite from crowded city life," said Redfin senior economist Sheharyar Bokhari. "For a lot of pandemic-era homebuyers, what has felt much more urgent than avoiding fire danger is finding a home they can afford at a time when inventory is so low and prices are so high," said Corey Keach, a Redfin real estate agent in the Boulder, Colorado area, where the Marshall Fire-the most destructive in the state's history-destroyed more than 1,000 homes at the end of 2021. Keach said, "I worked with a young family whose Louisville home burned down in the Marshall Fire. Afterwards, they moved to nearby Superior, where a lot of homes also burned down. They just wanted to get into their next home fast because they had already gone through the painstaking buying process in 2020 and were worried prices were going to skyrocket another 20%." Homes with high fire risk also sell faster than low-risk homes Fire-prone homes not only sell for more; they also get snatched up faster-another indication that evolving home buyer preferences during the pandemic made high-risk areas seem more attractive to many house hunters. The typical high-risk home sold in 16 days in April, compared with 20 days for the typical low-risk home. Price cuts are more common for homes with high fire risk Another interesting shift Redfin has observed in recent weeks is that sellers of high-fire-risk homes have become more likely than sellers of low-risk homes to slash their listing prices after putting their homes on the market.