As far as whether it’s a real concern…it would be pretty far down my list of factors when deciding where to buy. In fact, I think it would be a negligible factor. But maybe that’s just me.
We moved to Carmel Valley in 2002, and have never really felt threatened (we’ve lived in a few different areas of CV). We did have to evacuate in 2007 (I think it was), but it seemed kind of ridiculous, given where the fire was and what was between the fire and our house (that being a bunch of fairly new neighborhoods with not much vegetation).
We’re right on a canyon, but the canyon is more or less south of us, and it’s pretty rare that a south wind is blowing during a fire event. Nevertheless, a few insurance companies did decline to cover our house. We ended up with State Farm, and we don’t seem to pay any more for homeowner’s insurance than the next guy.
