What replaces a community that has been burned down? Further gentrification

Unexpected catastrophes such as wildfires can completely change the character of a community, as larger, more expensive homes are built, attracting buyers from a different socioeconomic status.

Urban wildfires like those that continue to rage in Los Angeles and the one in Colorado on December 30, 2021, account for a small share of fires overall, but they’re becoming more common. And their aftershocks are all too similar to what comes after other disasters and extreme weather events: The fires not only lay bare existing inequities — they exacerbate them. When ravaged communities start to rebuild, “it’s a very common pattern that we see, that homes are now bigger or fancier,” said Deserai Anderson Crow, a University of Colorado Denver professor who has researched crises and disasters such as the 2021 Marshall Fire, the Covid-19 pandemic, and the 2013 floods in Boulder County. “Not only does that change the nature of a community, it also changes the nature of the housing stock and affordability. And having a lot of fancy houses in a community tends to raise the value (and property taxes and insurance) of surrounding houses, even if they aren’t fancy,” she said. Grass fires aren’t out of the ordinary in the high desert foothills of Boulder County, Colorado, 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.