Houston, TX
Houston wildfire risk explained
Houston's 645,284 buildings earn a 63rd-percentile wildfire-risk score nationally under USFS's model — well above the national norm for wildfire risk. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Separately from the risk score above, Houston's burn probability — fire likelihood with no building count factored in — sits at the 66th percentile nationally.
What "at risk" means for the buildings here
Most of Houston's buildings (89.6% of 645,284) fall outside USFS's Direct and Indirect zones entirely — that doesn't zero out the score above, it means the risk is regional, not structure-by-structure. At 645,284 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
Where Houston ranks
Houston's 63rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 19th ranking inside Texas does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 45 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Houston ranks 11,550 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4 by building count (1 is largest). Within Texas alone, it ranks 1,457 of 1,795 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for Texas on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Houston's high rating (63rd percentile) puts it among the places where the national carrier-pullback trend is most relevant — not a guarantee of a coverage problem, but a reason to shop rather than assume.
What would actually reduce this score
With 89.6% of buildings rated Minimal exposure, Houston gets less benefit from structure hardening than a Direct- or Indirect-dominant place would — the home-hardening guide explains why the zone matters.
More on how this number was built
Houston's 63rd-percentile score and its burn-probability figure both come from the same USFS workbook, documented in the methodology guide. For more on what minimal exposure implies beyond Houston, see the exposure-zones guide.