San Diego, CA

San Diego County's 2007 firestorm—involving multiple simultaneous fires, more than 500,000 evacuations, and over 1,500 homes destroyed—remains the baseline reference for inland buyers assessing WUI exposure. The county's wildfire score of 80 sits at the 89th national percentile. The January 2024 urban flooding event added a second data point that the city's mild-weather reputation actively resists: serious runoff and infrastructure stress in areas that rarely appear on risk maps. What we noticed: the county splits into two distinct risk profiles—coastal and inland—and the insurance consequences are measurable. Ocean Beach and Hillcrest face coastal erosion, stormwater, and older-housing upgrade questions. Rancho Bernardo sits in genuinely higher WUI territory where FAIR Plan dependence rises and standard market coverage narrows. Those are not the same financial proposition, and buyers comparing them on price per square foot alone are missing the variable that matters most. Annual premiums range from $1,500 to $4,200, with FAIR Plan usage more common in inland canyon and WUI areas. Flood risk is persistently underestimated because the city's brand identity is built around mild weather—but canyon runoff and urban stormwater create real exposure during atmospheric river events. Heat at the 68th national percentile is moderate, but inland valleys run significantly hotter than coastal zones. The practical checklist for a Rancho Bernardo buyer looks nothing like the checklist for a downtown buyer: one centers on defensible space, fire-resistive materials, and evacuation routes; the other centers on stormwater drainage and coastal erosion. San Diego is two markets sharing one name.

— Open Data Collective