SAN DIEGO-Though the 16 fires that are engulfing San Bernardino, Riverside, Los Angeles and San Diego counties will produce devastating short-term effects for many home and business owners, the economy will apparently be granted a reprieve.

For many homeowners, the situation went from bad to worse. Not only was the single-family housing market in a slump, but some of the 881,500 Southern California residents currently evacuated will return in the next few days to find that their homes are among the 1,155 (as of Wednesday morning) that were destroyed.

As bleak of a situation as this seems, however, economists believe that once the immediate devastation passes very little long-term effects will be felt. “We're obviously in the midst of a housing recession: prices are falling and the building industry is getting hammered,” Christopher Thornberg, a Los Angeles economist and principal at Beacon Economics, tells GlobeSt.com. “But with the fires, the impact here is probably somewhat positive. We have a situation where there will be rebuilding, which will provide a little boost to an industry in tough shape.”