Wildfires like those that engulfed many areas in the Western states this summer can't be prevented, for the most part. But there's plenty homeowners can do to protect their properties.

And don't think you shouldn't be bothered: About a third of all houses in the United States are located in what fire safety officials call wildland urban districts, which are near or among areas prone to wildfires. According to the latest Natural Disaster Housing Risk Report from RealtyTrac, moreover, 13 percent of all single-family houses -- some 10.6 million houses and condos -- are located in counties with a "high" or "very high" risk for wildfires.

Over the years, wildfires have ravaged houses in three-fourths of the states. And with more and more people choosing to reside farther from urban centers and closer to nature, the chances are greater than ever that someone you know -- maybe even you -- will lose a house to fire.

Already this year, more than 45,000 fires have burned some 8.6 million acres, according to the latest count by the National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho. The majority of those fires have been in the West, but fires have raged practically everywhere.

For example, the worst drought in North Carolina history set the stage for an awful wildfire in 2008, when a lightning strike ended up scorching 41,500 acres. In Georgia a year earlier, nearly 470,00 acres burned and 26 structures were lost in that state's worst fire. And in Florida in 1998, 4,899 fires took out half a million acres and 342 houses.

Wildfires are covered by standard homeowner's insurance policies. But the best insurance is prevention. Here, gathered from a number of sources, are some steps you can take to protect your house and improve its fire resistance.

-- Choose a firewise location. Canyons may offer a beautiful view, but they tend to act as chimneys, drawing the fire up and accelerating the speed at which it spreads. A level site is better than a sloped one. A grass fire moves up a slope four times faster, with flames twice as high as a fire on level ground, because hot gases rising in front of the fire preheat the up-slope vegetation.

If you're building new, you can avoid this kind of topography. Also, find out about prevailing winds, seasonal weather conditions and the local fire history, so you can plan your landscape accordingly.

If your place is already up, go to work on your surroundings so the landscape will not bring a fire to your door. Do this by creating three safety zones, the extent of which will depend on your property lines and your risk. In high-risk areas, 200 feet away from the house may not be enough.

The first zone should be a well-irrigated area that circles the structure for at least 30 feet on all sides. If your house is on a slope, though, a clearance of between 50 and 100 feet may be necessary, especially on the downhill side of the lot.

Plantings in this area should be limited to carefully spaced indigenous species. Beware of "ladder fuels": vegetation that serves as a link between the grass and treetops and enables the fire to climb into trees or onto your house.

Trees and shrubs are fine in the first zone, as long as dead or low-hanging branches are removed promptly and the height of ground vegetation is controlled. But the more grass, the better, because a wide lawn can serve as a fuel break just as much as a driveway. Ditto for plants with a high moisture content.

Your irrigation system also should reach the second zone, which can contain a limited number of low-growing plants and trees spaced at least 10 feet apart. Dead or dying limbs should be trimmed away, and no live limbs should come within 10 feet of the structure. On trees taller than 18 feet, prune away branches that are less than 6 feet from the ground.

In zone three, thin selected trees and remove highly flammable vegetation such as dead or dying shrubs and trees.

-- Plan another line of defense. The survival space you construct around your house should keep all but the most ferocious wildfires at bay. But if one does happen to break through this protective zone -- usually from wind-blown embers or firebrands, sometimes more than a mile away -- ignition is most likely to occur on the roof.

Fire officials say eye-catching, untreated wood-shake roofs are the No. 1 cause of home losses in wildland areas because they can catch wind-blown sparks. If local rules allow, a better choice is factory-treated shakes. But consider using such noncombustible or fire-resistant roofing materials as Class A shingles; metal, cement and concrete products; or slate, metal or terra cotta tiles.

Fire-resistant sub-roofing also can improve survivability. But don't be fooled into thinking an expensive roof sprinkling system will stop a fire. You need a large volume of water to make a roof safe, yet water pressure is generally at its lowest during a fire. Also, the electricity needed to run the system is likely to fail, and the high winds that usually accompany a wildfire often divert the spray away from the roof.

Walls, too, should be made of fire-resistant materials such as stucco or masonry. Vinyl can soften and melt during a fire, offering little or no protection.

If you're building a new house, minimize the number and size of windows on the downhill side, the side most likely to be exposed to a fire. Smaller windows perform better than larger panes in high heat, according to the National Association of Homebuilders Research Center, and double-pane or tempered glass are each more effective than single-pane glass. For greater protection, windows, sliding glass doors and skylights should have nonflammable screening shutters.

To prevent sparks from entering your house, screen your chimney with noncombustible wire mesh. Also cover exterior attic and under-floor vents with wire mesh -- plastic or nylon screening will melt -- no larger than an eighth of an inch. Screen under your porch, too, as well as any other areas below the ground line.

Also, locate your under-eave roof vents near the roofline rather than near the wall to prevent heat or flames from becoming trapped inside. For the same reason, the eaves themselves should be boxed or designed with minimal overhang.

Finally, inspect your house occasionally, looking for breaks and spaces between roof tiles, warping wood or cracks and crevices in the structure where fire or sparks could enter.

More than a year and a half ago, Uncle Sam decreed that the pertinent mortgage information disclosed to borrowers at closing be simplified. So far, though, the process has been anything but simple.

Which leads to the question: Will "simplification" end up making it more expensive or more complicated -- or both -- for homebuyers to close on their loans?

Originally, lenders had 18 months to comply with the new rules, which combine the longstanding Truth in Lending Act (TILA) and the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act (RESPA) disclosure statements into one (supposedly) easier-to-understand form. The new form is called TRID, which stands for TILA-RESPA Integrated Disclosure.

The original Aug. 1 deadline has come and gone, but the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) has granted lenders a two-month reprieve; they now have until Oct. 3 to start using the TRID disclosure form. But practically every wing of the home finance business has been grousing about the new requirements since the get-go. Their gripe: It's too expensive to reprogram their computers, and even more so to retrain their staffs to comply with the new edict.

Some background is in order here:

TILA and RESPA used to be administered by two separate federal agencies: TILA by the Federal Reserve and RESPA by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. But now, as part of 2010's Dodd-Frank consumer protection act, which lenders detest, those laws are under the purview of the CFPB. CFPB created the combined TRID form as part of its "Know Before You Owe" program.

By combining the two forms into one, the agency believes it has succeeded in making it easier for borrowers to understand exactly what they are getting into. It tested the new form in a quantitative validation study, and participants provided more correct answers using the new single form than they did using the previous disclosures.

"Our new disclosures are easier to understand and use than the existing disclosures," the CFPB said in a release about the TRID form. "In addition, the loan estimate you get after you apply for a mortgage and the closing disclosure you get before you close are designed to work with each other."

That's all well and good. But lenders maintain they are having a tough time implementing the new requirements.

According to Becky Walzak, president at rjbWalzak Consulting, a Deerfield Beach, Florida, firm that advises the lending community, there are something like 2,500 new calculations that have to be programmed into lender systems. And on top of that, employees also have to be "re-progammed."

Lenders that aren't currently in at least the beta testing stage on what they say is a massive undertaking are behind the eight ball, says Walzak. "People have been scared to death about this thing," she says.

Nevertheless, Walzak believes most lenders have not put off compliance until the last minute.

That may be true, but as an indication that not all lenders are on a fast track, compliance vendor Ellie Mae is still offering RESPA-TILA workshops. The latest one will occur just two weeks before the new TRID deadline. (Ellie Mae has posted on its website a countdown of the days left before the TRID "monster" takes effect. To illustrate how lenders feel about it, the post includes a cartoon T. rex getting ready to pounce.)

Even the CFPB itself is offering last-minute guidance for lender laggards on its website.

So, how will this all play out for homebuyers?

While TRID is indeed troublesome for lenders and may initially cause some disruptions that impact borrowers, Ann Fulmer, principal at mortgage consulting firm Paladin in Atlanta, says it will be "a positive thing." Above all, Fulmer says the new requirements will put an end to the unhappy surprises borrowers get at closing, such as when the amount they were told they could expect to pay at closing -- the TILA statement they received when they applied for a mortgage -- falls far short of what they must actually pay, according to RESPA's HUD-1 closing sheet.

"A lot of shenanigans creep in, a lot of errors creep in" during the period between loan approval and closing, Fulmer says.

The jury is out on whether the new rules will make it more expensive for borrowers, as lenders claim it will. But compared to other changes mandated by the CFPB, the costs associated with TRID may just be a "drop in the bucket," says Fulmer.

How about simpler? That, too, is a wait-and-see question. But Fulmer thinks TRID may help answer the most frequent consumer questions -- What is my interest rate? What is my monthly payment? -- by putting them upfront in boldface on the first page.

Receiving the new form three days in advance, as mandated under the new rules, should also help borrowers make sure they are getting the same deal at closing that they were promised originally.

At the same time, though, Fulmer points out that the new TRID statement contains so much verbiage that it could be even more confusing for consumers than the old ones.

"Some think there's so much information that it is going to cause a problem," she says.

(Freelance writer Mark Fogarty contributed to this article.)

Looking for work? Look no further than the residential construction business.

Builders across the land say the lack of workers is one of their most pressing problems -- even more important than the dearth of buildable home sites or tight lending standards.

According to a survey in June by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), labor shortages have become more widespread over the past year, even as the new-home market has picked up steam.

Shortages are most acute for the basic skills that are necessary to building any house. For example, 69 percent of the builders who participated in the survey reported a shortage of workers who are willing and able to do even rudimentary carpentry. And 1 in 4 of them said the shortage was "serious."

But builders seem to be even more concerned about the availability of subcontractors. Nearly 75 percent of the work in building a typical single-family home is done by subs.

In the rough carpentry category, 74 percent of builders reported a shortage of subcontractors. Nearly 75 percent cited shortages of framing crews, 69 percent said they couldn't find enough finish carpenters and 56 percent reported a dearth of bricklayer-mason contractors.

And so it goes, on down the line. There aren't enough painters, electricians, plumbers, roofers and heating and air conditioning subs to satisfy the need.

"The incidence of shortages is surprisingly high given the rate of new home construction, which has only partially recovered from its 2008 downturn," said Paul Emrath, an economist with the NAHB.

How bad is it? Shortages in the nine trades covered in the NAHB survey are now "substantially higher" than they were at the peak of the 2004-2005 housing boom, when annual starts were averaging around 2 million (twice the current average). The last time labor shortages were so widespread was just before 2001, during a prolonged period of strong economic growth.

The bottom line for new homebuyers: It may take longer for your house to be built than you were told when you signed your contract. Worse, perhaps, your house may have more than the normal number of cosmetic defects like broken tile, chipped bathtubs and uneven paint.

Or worse yet, because builders are being forced to use neophyte workers, your new house may be both late and substandard.

CAR AND STUDENT LOANS WEIGHING DOWN HOMEOWNERS

Homeowners today are carrying more non-mortgage debt than at any time in the last 10 years -- too much, perhaps, to allow them to move up to a new house or even pay down their current loans, according to a new report.

On average, today's mortgage holders owe a whopping $25,000 on car loans, student loans, credit cards and the like, according to the data and mortgage analytics division of Black Knight Financial Services in Jacksonville, Florida.

That's $1,400 more on average than just one year ago, and nearly $2,600 more than in 2011.

The primary driver: auto-related debt, which accounted for 81 percent of the overall increase in non-mortgage debt over the past four years, Black Knight found. At the same time, student loan debt owed by homeowners is at an all-time high. Some 15 percent of all homeowners carry school loans, with average balances of nearly $35,000. The share of mortgage-holders carrying student loans has increased by 44 percent since 2006.

The offshoot of all this is that today's homeowners may owe so much that if they are hit by any kind of financial setback -- a major illness, for example, or a layoff -- they might not be able to make their house payments. Alternatively, they may not qualify for a new loan if they want to refinance or move up the housing ladder.

Non-mortgage debt among U.S. mortgage holders bears close watching due to its potential impact on both the lending and housing industries, says Ben Graboske, the executive who runs Black Knight's data and analytical division.

"Non-mortgage debt is another key piece of the home affordability puzzle -- the more total debt borrowers are carrying, and the higher monthly non-mortgage payments they have, the less money they have to put toward a new home purchase, or potentially even (to) their current mortgage obligations," Graboske says.

The company has already noticed "a clear correlation" between non-mortgage debt and borrowers inquiring about a new mortgage, with those who have recent mortgage inquiries on their credit reports carrying nearly 40 percent more debt than borrowers who do not.