Hobe Sound, FL
How exposed is Hobe Sound to wildfire?
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Hobe Sound at the 93rd national percentile for risk to structures, in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — a score built from 6,619 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Hobe Sound at the 92nd national percentile — 1 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Hobe Sound's building exposure, zone by zone
90.1% of Hobe Sound's 6,619 buildings fall in USFS's Indirect exposure zone — ember cast rather than direct flame — against 9% Direct and 1% Minimal. Vent screens and roofing material matter more here than lot clearing alone. At 6,619 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Hobe Sound ranks
Hobe Sound scores 93rd nationally and 87th within Florida — close enough that its state context doesn't change the picture the national number already gives. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Hobe Sound ranks 2,229 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 2,618 by building count (1 is largest). Within Florida alone, it ranks 121 of 955 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Florida on its state page.
Hobe Sound and the insurance market
At the 93rd percentile nationally, Hobe Sound carries the very high rating that has pushed some carriers to limit new business in similarly-scored places elsewhere in the country. Worth comparing quotes rather than assuming last year's renewal terms still apply.
What would actually reduce this score
Hobe Sound's 90.1% Indirect-exposure share points at embers, not flame contact, as the main pathway — ember-resistant vents and non-combustible roofing rank ahead of defensible space here. Detail in the home-hardening guide.
Where Hobe Sound's figures come from
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 6,619 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Hobe Sound. The exposure-zones guide covers what Hobe Sound's dominant indirect exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.