Homestead Valley, CA
Homestead Valley, CA's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts Homestead Valley at the 68th national percentile for risk to structures, well above the national norm for wildfire risk — a score built from 2,977 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Homestead Valley at the 65th national percentile — 3 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Homestead Valley's building exposure, zone by zone
Of Homestead Valley's 2,977 counted buildings, 98.3% carry Direct exposure and only 0.1% carry Minimal — a lopsided split that puts defensible-space clearing ahead of vents or roofing as the intervention worth doing first.
Homestead Valley against the rest of the country
Homestead Valley's 68th national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 26th ranking inside California does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 43 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Homestead Valley ranks 10,045 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 5,474 by building count (1 is largest). Within California alone, it ranks 1,171 of 1,570 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for California on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Homestead Valley's 68th-percentile score lands in California, the only two states requiring a wildfire disclosure at sale. California's surplus-lines homeowners market passed 300,000 policies for the first time in 2025, driven by carriers pulling back from wildfire-exposed areas statewide. The disclosure-law guide covers what it requires.
What would actually reduce this score
Homestead Valley's 98.3% 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.
Where Homestead Valley's figures come from
Homestead Valley's 68th-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. The exposure-zones guide covers what Homestead Valley's dominant direct exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.