Four Years After: Keith Woods on Fire Recovery
The Guest Speaker for our meeting on October 14, 2021, was Keith Woods, CEO of the North Coast Builders Exchange. Keith was introduced by Steve Amend, who has known Keith for many years. Keith’s career at the NCBE has spanned nearly 2 decades. He is a former President of the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce and a frequent guest speaker everywhere. Keith presented his thoughts on Sonoma County’s recovery from the 2017 fires, which took place almost exactly 4 years ago.
Keith reminded us that almost 5,000 homes burned in Sonoma County, 3,000 in Santa Rosa alone. Almost 5% of available Sonoma County housing stock burned, as well as bridges, hotels, barns, and commercial structures. The fires burned hundreds of homes in Lake County, a high percentage of homes in Redwood Valley in Mendocino County, and another 500-600 homes in Napa County.
Many of these communities have made substantial recoveries. 90% of the homes Coffey Park have been rebuilt or are in the rebuild pipeline. The community, however, is very different. The pre-fire $400,000 - $500,000 homes have been replaced by $650,000 - $700,000 homes. 40% of the homes in Coffey Park were rentals, and most renters have gone elsewhere. Big developers offered homeowners 8-10 floor plans for production homes. Rebuild costs have generally been in the $250-300 per square foot range. The Fountaingrove area has not been as successful. Only 50-55% of the homes have been rebuilt. The homeowners were not organized and had to find their own architects, soil testers, and builders. Fountaingrove homeowners were generally underinsured and have had significant financial problems as a result. The homes were often built on large hillside lots, making rebuilding more difficult and therefore expensive. Many of the homeowners have downsized. Redwood Valley has had even more problems, with only 30-40% of the homes rebuilt. Napa County has been the most successful in rebuilding, with a larger pool of available contractors.
Keith attributes Coffey Park’s success to its organization. They brought in speakers, had seminars about insurance and contracting, and invited the NCBE to help educate owners about how to avoid scammer contractors, among other things. There have been, however, a number of fraudulent contractors and contractors with poor business sense. As an example, Keith mentioned a Central Valley contractor who brought their own workers. They did not truly understand the travel, per diem, and overtime costs. Their workers also quickly learned that they could make a lot more per hour working for local contractors. The Central Valley contractor was unable to meet its obligations to the people who contracted with them.
Keith’s key message was that Santa Rosa’s recovery has been phenomenal. He complemented local government agencies, who streamlined the permit process. He noted a key problem in contracting: For every 5 workers leaving the industry, only 1 worker will join. Keith’s main advice: (1) if you want to remodel do it now and (2) keep your homeowner’s insurance up to date!
Many thanks to Keith for the expert analysis and sage advice. And thank you for your many years of service to Sonoma County!
Click HERE to view Keith's presentation. It will be available watch for a short time.
