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A national homebuilder has unveiled its first fire-resistant community in California, three months after the Los Angeles wildfires ravaged large swathes of pricey residential real estate. 

KB Homes (NYSE:KBH) has constructed 64 brand-new fire-resistant residences — Dixon Trail in Escondido — near Dixon Lake, just outside San Diego. As the builder hoped, demand has been high, with nearly a third of the homes already sold, according to CNBC. 

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Setting A Home Ablaze To Prove A Point

It wasn’t as if KB Homes managed to build an entire fire-resistant development in the wake of the L.A. wildfires. Rather, CNBC reported that they were already building a stand-alone community when company executives saw a demonstration home developed by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety — a nonprofit organization formed by the property-casualty insurance industry. The house was set alight to gauge its fire-poof effectiveness as part of the company’s testing protocols. KB Homes then decided to implement the IBHS standards in its community in progress by making changes to its building materials, gutters, shutters, and more.

“We had to change the architecture on the fly to [be] more stucco orientated, with fire-proof shutters and doors, and tempered windows. We were able to do that really quickly with this city [of Escondido] because they wanted to work with us,” KB Homes Senior Vice President Steve Ruffner told CNBC. 

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High Demand

Other fire-resistant features include enclosed gutters and eaves, fire-resistant patios, doors, and siding. All the homes have a six-inch vertical clearance using stucco and stone, plus a defensible space of five feet from the houses, which are spaced 10 feet apart and divided by metal fencing.

“Single-family detached homes in this area are attractive to a buyer, anyway,” Ruffner told Realtor.com. “But when they learn about this, it really reinforces the buyer’s decision. Between that and our Energy Star certification, it’s icing on the cake and closes the deal for them.”

Ruffner added: “It’s a peace of mind thing.” He said that all buyers have been able to get insurance, “which in this state is a real achievement.”

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One-Third Of All U.S. Homes Are In Wildfire Prone Areas

According to KB Home’s website, the company delivered 14,169 homes in 2024. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America say that one-third of all homes built in the U.S. are in wildfire-prone areas and as many as one in seven homeowners go without insurance due to escalating insurance costs. California and Florida have been worst hit with soaring premiums. While fire-resistant homes might help with insurance, they are more expensive than traditional non-resistant homes.

“I already see additional ‘fire-resistant’ building requirements being adopted in many communities currently at extreme risk,” Jessica Lauren of Fire Damaged House Aid told Realtor.com, “but these new requirements add costs to the final price sticker for housing,” she said. “This will price out many who would normally be able to purchase a property.”

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This article Builder KB Home Has Unveiled Its First 64 Home Fire-Resistant Community After Seeing A Demonstration Of A Home Being Set Alight originally appeared on Benzinga.com