Houghton Lake, MI
Houghton Lake wildfire risk explained
Out of every US place USFS scores, Houghton Lake lands at the 49th percentile for wildfire risk to structures — modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a figure built from its 4,981 buildings, not the land around them. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Houghton Lake's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 47th percentile nationally.
Where Houghton Lake's buildings actually sit
4,981 buildings are counted in Houghton Lake, and 46.2% of them are Indirect exposure — ember-driven risk rather than the 41.2% in Direct exposure or the 12.6% rated Minimal.
Where Houghton Lake ranks
Compare Houghton Lake's two percentiles: 95th within Michigan, only 49th nationally — a gap of 46 points that marks it as unusually exposed for its own state. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Houghton Lake ranks 16,067 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 3,440 by building count (1 is largest). Within Michigan alone, it ranks 40 of 745 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Michigan on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Houghton Lake's elevated wildfire rating (49th percentile) isn't the kind of score driving the carrier pullback making news in the highest-risk Western markets — but a standard homeowners quote is still worth comparing on its own terms.
What would actually reduce this score
Because 46.2% of Houghton Lake's buildings sit in the Indirect zone, sealing the ember pathway (vents, roofing, gutters) is the intervention this page's data actually supports — see the home-hardening guide.
More on how this number was built
Every one of the two percentiles behind Houghton Lake's 16,067-place national rank traces to USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities dataset — see the methodology guide. For more on what indirect exposure implies beyond Houghton Lake, see the exposure-zones guide.