Infernos could worsen Bay Area’s housing market
By George Avalos, Bay Area News Group
The deadly wildfires that roared through Sonoma and Napa counties this week, destroying thousands of homes, might also scorch the Bay Area’s already brutal housing market for months or years to come, experts warned Friday.
An estimated 2,800 homes have been destroyed in the wind-whipped infernos in Santa Rosa alone, and a total of about 3,000 homes have been lost in Northern California — a catastrophe that potentially leaves several thousand people to determine whether to eventually resume living on their devastated properties or to move elsewhere.
As a result, an already strained housing market — whose grim signature is skyrocketing home prices — could soon become even tighter as displaced residents begin scouting for places to live until their homes can be rebuilt, or they decide to relocate.
