Placitas (Sandoval), NM
How exposed is Placitas (Sandoval) to wildfire?
Placitas (Sandoval) sits at the 83rd percentile nationally for wildfire risk to structures — in USFS's highest wildfire-risk band nationally — per USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model, built from its 3,367 counted buildings, not vegetation cover alone. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts Placitas (Sandoval) at the 77th percentile, close to its 83rd-percentile risk score.
Where Placitas (Sandoval)'s buildings actually sit
Direct exposure dominates in Placitas (Sandoval): 92% of its 3,367 buildings, versus 8% Indirect and 0% Minimal. Clearing space around a structure changes the outcome here more than any single building-material swap.
How Placitas (Sandoval) compares
Placitas (Sandoval)'s 83rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 59th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 25 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, Placitas (Sandoval) ranks 5,237 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 4,962 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 204 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
Placitas (Sandoval)'s 83rd-percentile, very high rating is the kind of score behind a broader national pattern: insurers pulling back from the highest wildfire-risk markets, non-renewing or declining new policies outright, most visibly in California. Shopping around, not assuming automatic renewal, tends to matter here.
Lowering exposure, not just insuring around it
Placitas (Sandoval)'s 92% 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.
More on how this number was built
The methodology guide shows exactly how USFS turned 3,367 counted buildings into the percentiles shown above for Placitas (Sandoval). For more on what direct exposure implies beyond Placitas (Sandoval), see the exposure-zones guide.