Housing development in Colorado is spreading into fire-prone landscapes, increasing wildfire risk and adding to the challenges of affordable housing and rising insurance costs.
A new report , lead by the Cooperative Institute of Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado Boulder, suggests that building wildfire-resistant homes may cost far less than many people think. Researchers examined the cost of wildfire-resilient construction across eight Colorado counties and found that meeting the state's new wildfire building code typically increases the cost of a new home by only 0.6 to 10.8 percent. The extra cost is even smaller when you exclude exterior decks.
"Colorado needs more affordable housing, and the homes we build today will shape our communities' wildfire risk for decades," said Virginia Iglesias, CIRES scientist and director of Earth Lab. "This study informs the discussion by quantifying the costs of wildfire-resilient construction, helping builders, homeowners, and policymakers understand how greater protection can fit within housing budgets."
Recent devastating Colorado wildfires showed that wildfire is not just a threat for remote mountain communities. Wind-driven fires can threaten homes in forests, grasslands, and densely populated suburbs. The 2020 East Troublesome Fire destroyed hundreds of homes in Grand County, while the 2021 Marshall Fire swept through suburban neighborhoods in Boulder County in a few hours, destroying more than 1,000 structures. Projections suggest that without meaningful mitigation, the probability of home loss to wildfire in Colorado could increase five-fold by mid-century under moderate warming and development scenarios.
The increasing risk has also affected Colorado's insurance market. Many homeowners have seen premiums rise sharply, while others have faced policy non-renewals in high-risk areas. In response, Colorado enacted the Colorado Wildfire Resiliency Code in 2022 and revised it in 2025. The statewide code establishes minimum wildfire-resistant construction standards for new homes built in designated wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas, where development meets fire-prone vegetation. The standards fall into two groups: those focused primarily on wind-blown embers, which can threaten homes far from the fire front, and those that also protect against radiant heat and direct flame contact, which become more relevant where nearby vegetation or neighboring structures burn close to a home.
To better understand the financial implications of the code, CIRES researchers evaluated new single-family homes in Boulder, Jefferson, El Paso, Summit, Grand, Delta, La Plata, and Las Animas counties. Their study compared five different construction approaches, ranging from typical building practices used before the wildfire code to stricter wildfire-resilience standards.
One of the clearest findings was that most home building costs has little to do with wildfire protection. A home's foundation, framing, floors, and insulation account for 85 to 90 percent of total construction costs. Wildfire codes affect only a relatively small portion of the home's exterior, including roofing, siding, vents, windows, doors, decks, and landscaping near the structure. As a result, wildfire-resilience upgrades influence only a small share of the overall construction budget.
Across the seven counties, homes built to new code standards in at-risk areas cost approximately 0.6 to 10.8 percent more than homes built under previous construction practices. The increase was remarkably consistent across counties with very different labor markets, building traditions, and wildfire environments, according to the study.
The study also suggests that many of the most effective wildfire-resistant features, such as improved roofs, vents, windows, and siding, add relatively modest costs compared to specialized deck construction. Deck requirements drove most of the cost difference between lower and higher levels of wildfire protection, with that gap shrinking from 10.2 to 1.2 percentage points when decks were excluded.
As wildfire risk continues to grow across Colorado, the study provides new evidence that resilient construction may offer a practical path toward reducing future losses while adding a comparatively small premium to the overall cost of building a home. Many of the features that help homes survive wildfire can be incorporated during construction for far less than the cost of rebuilding after a disaster.
"Reducing wildfire losses starts with a shared understanding of risk and how to address it," Iglesias said. "Education, access to lower-cost compliant materials, and contractor familiarity with those options can translate that understanding into affordable, resilient homes."
