Mortgage lenders don’t need another rate hike to worry about—climate change is already killing their

As Colorado’s home insurance market veers further into crisis, mortgage professionals are sounding the alarm on what’s at stake—not just for homeowners, but for lenders and the financial system as a whole.

Wildfires, once seasonal and sporadic, are now a recurring threat in Colorado—wiping out entire neighborhoods, upending insurance markets, and placing mounting pressure on mortgage lenders who say the state’s housing ecosystem is nearing a tipping point.

“It’s a struggle, quite frankly,” says Justin Smith, a senior mortgage banker with Cornerstone Home Lending, who has worked in the Colorado housing market for decades. “There is no single silver bullet here.”