Paradise Hills, NM
Paradise Hills wildfire risk explained
USFS scores Paradise Hills at the 42nd national percentile for wildfire risk to structures (modestly above the national average for wildfire risk), a figure built from 1,779 real buildings rather than raw vegetation cover. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
Fire likelihood alone (USFS's burn-probability figure) ranks Paradise Hills at the 40th national percentile — 2 points below its risk-to-structures score, a gap driven by how much is actually built there.
Where Paradise Hills's buildings actually sit
Most of Paradise Hills's buildings (69.9% of 1,779) 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.
Paradise Hills against the rest of the country
Paradise Hills's 42nd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 9th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 33 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Paradise Hills ranks 18,251 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 8,126 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 452 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
What this risk score means for insurance
Paradise Hills's elevated wildfire rating (42nd 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.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Paradise Hills's 69.9% Minimal-exposure share means structure-level hardening matters less here than it would elsewhere — still worth the low-cost basics, per the home-hardening guide.
Where Paradise Hills's figures come from
Paradise Hills's 42nd-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 Paradise Hills's dominant minimal exposure actually means, with real examples from across the dataset.