Disasters and extreme weather are making America’s homes even more unaffordable

The larger and more expensive homes that are built after a disaster or extreme weather event underscore how unexpected catastrophes can change the character of areas in short order.

Grass fires aren’t out of the ordinary here in the high desert foothills, so Allison Bequette wasn’t terribly surprised when one forced her and other drivers on a detour. What was striking to her, however, was the sheer intensity and size of the flames. “As tall as a house,” she recalled. But on this second to last day of 2021, which was yet another in a long line of unseasonably dry ones in the region, hurricane-force winds shot down the mountain and whipped up those flames into a “suburban firestorm,” a deadly, raging inferno that ultimately would consume more than 1,000 houses, a hotel and several other businesses in communities southeast of Boulder. Bequette’s home of nearly 30 years was among them. The Marshall Fire caused more than $2 billion in damages, making it the costliest wildfire in Colorado, a state whose purple mountain majesties have long combatted untamed and devastating blazes. While wildland-urban interface fires account for a small share of fires overall (although are becoming increasingly common), the aftershocks of the Marshall Fire were all too similar to what’s ensued from other disasters and extreme weather events: It not only laid bare existing inequities — it exacerbated them.