South Valley, NM
South Valley, NM's wildfire risk, in USFS's own numbers
USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities model puts South Valley at the 53rd national percentile for risk to structures, modestly above the national average for wildfire risk — a score built from 21,110 actual buildings. (Source: USFS's Wildfire Risk to Communities methodology.)
USFS's separate burn-probability score — fire likelihood alone, before counting what's built there — puts South Valley at the 53rd percentile, close to its 53rd-percentile risk score.
South Valley's building exposure, zone by zone
44.9% of South Valley's 21,110 buildings sit in USFS's Minimal exposure zone, with only 38.4% rated Direct — risk here comes from regional burn probability more than proximity to burnable vegetation at the structure itself. At 21,110 buildings, this is a substantial built environment, so the shares below describe a real population of structures, not a handful of edge cases.
South Valley against the rest of the country
South Valley's 53rd national percentile looks worse in isolation than its 19th ranking inside New Mexico does — this place is on the milder end for its own state, by 34 points. Among the 31,521 US communities USFS scores, South Valley ranks 14,811 for wildfire risk (1 is highest) and 659 by building count (1 is largest). Within New Mexico alone, it ranks 400 of 495 places by risk. See the full county-by-county picture for New Mexico on its state page.
South Valley and the insurance market
At the 53rd national percentile, South Valley rates elevated for wildfire risk — well short of the threshold where insurers have been withdrawing coverage, though comparing a quote costs nothing either way.
What would actually reduce this score
South Valley's 44.9% 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.
More on how this number was built
South Valley's 53rd-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 South Valley, see the exposure-zones guide.