Highland Lakes, NJ
Highland Lakes, NJ's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS scores Highland Lakes at the 47th national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 2,217 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Highland Lakes's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 45th percentile nationally.
Highland Lakes's building exposure, zone by zone
Direct exposure dominates in Highland Lakes: 86.9% of its 2,217 buildings, versus 10.9% Indirect and 2.2% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Highland Lakes compares
Highland Lakes's risk sits at a similar level relative to New Jersey (52nd percentile statewide) as it does nationally (47th) — this place isn't unusual for its own state either way. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Highland Lakes ranks 16,834 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 6,889 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Jersey alone, it ranks 337 of 700 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Jersey on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Highland Lakes's elevated rating (47th percentile nationally) sits outside the range where wildfire risk alone reshapes an insurance market — still, a homeowner here loses nothing by comparing rates.
Hardening a home in Highland Lakes
Highland Lakes's 86.9% Direct-exposure share means lot clearing around the structure typically outweighs any single material upgrade here. The home-hardening guide ranks the options for a place shaped like this.
More on how this number was built
Highland Lakes's 47th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Highland Lakes, see the exposure-zones guide.