Maui’s Fires Risk Pushing Up Housing Costs in Strained Market
The island’s residents now face the prospect that rebuilding homes and businesses, and insuring them against blazes in the future, will be more expensive.
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Devastating wildfires that swept through parts of Maui have destroyed homes on a Hawaiian island where residents were already squeezed by one of the least affordable housing markets in the US.
While the total impact of the deadly blazes has yet to be assessed, business owners and island dwellers are confronting the potential for profound devastation. About 3,400 structures in historic Lahaina and central Maui valued at $3.3 billion have already been exposed, according to an estimate from Marsh McLennan’s Guy Carpenter that factors in values of building contents and autos.