Prognosticating about products and services of the future is always a dicey proposition. But when it comes to the development of "safe" houses in the coming years and decades, perhaps the "future" is already here! This topic is particularly important to consider in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy and a profusion of wildfires this past year. Demand by consumers and forward-thinking builders is focusing more effort on advanced loss-prevention techniques when it comes to most people's highest-value asset. There are now "tornado-resistant" houses, "hurricane-resistant" houses, "fire-resistant" houses, and even "all perils-resistant" houses.

A Missouri mansion, located in the heart of tornado alley, is being built to withstand even the most powerful twister. It will feature 12-inch walls composed of high-performance concrete and Helix steel fiber. Its windows have been tested to withstand a two-by-four traveling at 40 miles per hour. Another house in Missouri, built in the wake of the Joplin tornados in May 2011, has walls built of pre-stressed concrete, reinforced with rebar and high-tensile steel cables pulled with a hydraulic jack to thousands of pounds of pressure permanently bonded with the concrete.

A house in New Orleans has windows imported from Germany that are designed to resist 150 mile-per-hour winds, with important spaces elevated to protect against flooding. A 40,000-square-foot waterfront mansion in South Florida has 12-inch-thick reinforced walls wrapped in a rubberized material for extra waterproofing and covered in two-inch stone.

"Fire-resistant" homes are becoming more prevalent in wildfire-exposed locales. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety reports that combustible roof coverings are the greatest threat to a structure during a wildfire. It recommends metal, clay, or concrete tiles to mitigate the chance of loss. An 8,000-square-foot home (with an exterior of concrete and steel) in Southern California withstood a major wildfire a few years ago. Flames of 40 feet in height devastated neighbor homes. The reinforced home, however, survived the fire with minimal damage.

Some wealthy home owners are trying to protect themselves from virtually any peril with "all perils-resistant" homes. A house near Malibu, California, was built to withstand both earthquakes and burglars. It incorporates a complex concrete-and-steel bolting system to keep the retaining walls anchored to a concrete base. A state-of-the-art security system includes a facial-recognition program, which can emit a disorienting fog to stop intruders dead in their tracks.

Although the law of diminishing returns applies to many of these measures, a fair number are rather economical and can be utilized on more modest homes. For example, spending several hundred dollars on an extra 3/4-inch layer of plywood before adding the drywall can improve the storm and intruder resistance of walls.

The safe homes of the future are already here; insurers would be wise to grant generous homeowners insurance credits for these homes to encourage more of these proactive, forward-thinking, and innovative risk control measures.