What frequency of fires would make you leave California? (San Jose: appointed, apartment)

[wac_432]

Smoke year round would do it.

We only had smoke impacts on the year the fire burned to the edge of town. Fire season is nbd to us. It didn't affect us at all the last 2 years.

Smoke a few days a year would also be nbd.

[WestGuest]

Obviously if your house burns down you move, but I wonder if there is a wider demographic effect. Are the fires pretty much forgotten afterwards?


Of course many other areas of the country are fire-prone- perhaps the west coast of Washington and Oregon because of high annual rain are less susceptible . I love California - went to Cal for college but am not in touch anymore.

[MrJester]

Fires impact pretty much only mountainous areas. I think people tend to rebuild or move to lowland areas rather than move out of state.

[Exitus Acta Probat]

Not really. There are at least a dozen reasons much more prominent than fires.

[mgforshort]

If we could sell our house we'd love to move to North Carolina or Arkansas, like tomorrow morning.
Reasons are: Fear of fire, high cost of insurance and property tax, and the liberal politics, in this order.

[Sydney123]

If we can stomach earthquakes, super high taxes and liberals.... fires are a walk in the park.

[MtnSurfer]

Some do especially in areas more greatly affected by fire. There quite a few who are further removed from its affects beyond hearing about it in the news, maybe getting some smoke occasionally, etc... Keep in mind CA is a huge state with many areas unaffected. Its kind of like the Big Island when there's a volcanic eruption. While most of the island is not in danger, national news makes it look like the lava is flowing through everyone's living room!

Then there are others who will not leave 'come hell or high water' even if they are in higher risk areas, seriously. I have family who are good people and one set lost their home to fire two years ago in Santa Rosa. They are retired. But instead of leaving they've decided to rebuild since they love the area and their grandkids are nearby. Now with the foundation poured they were recently under a new evacuation order due to 'another' dangerous fire just two years later in the same area.

For many others fire is just a single factor to add to the list of pros/cons one weighs when considering moving to certain parts of CA or perhaps leaving the state all together. But it is only one among many and not normally the most significant. For us, housing affordability in the areas we wanted to live was a greater factor. And fire was more of a weeding out filter for areas we may have otherwise considered. We loved living in Monterey for over a decade and never once feared for our safety with regards to fire. Though it did affect hiking trails we enjoyed due to stupid human mistakes causing fire. But that can really happen in any forest whether intentional or not.

Living in WA now we have much more precipitation which makes things greener and less fire prone overall than most of CA. So we enjoy that aspect. But CA has the most mild weather which attracts millions of people causes housing prices to go crazy especially along the most popular coastal regions. Bottom line, everything is about trade-offs. If you can live with the drier climate and higher COL, there are definite pluses there. Many live in CA their entire lives and never once have to deal with fire risk to their themselves or their property.

Derek

[marcopolo666]

https://www.city-data.com/forum/calif...-make-you.html

[marcopolo666]

https://www.city-data.com/forum/calif...ans-leave.html

[BeauCharles]

Its not just the fires that make me consider it when I'm free to do so. Its like "death by a thousand cuts". So many things have happened and so much has changed in this state during my 59 year lifetime its just not as appealing to me as it was in the 1980s or 1990s for example. Its just taken a while to build up to this for me.