The first vacant lot in Altadena was put for sale in late January. List has promised “a great opportunity to build” after Etonfire previously destroyed the site’s home.
A few weeks later, a half dozen more lists appeared. This will make it appear that the lock is open.
“There are many options,” said Jeremy Hardy, real estate agent at Craig Estates & Fine Properties.
Two months after a fire that torested or destroyed more than 12,000 homes or destroyed or severely damaged, Altadena and Pacific Palisade property owners are increasingly selling burned lots, rather than undertaking a time-consuming, expensive reconstruction process.
As of Monday morning there were 49 burning lots for sale at Pallisard in the Pacific Ocean, according to Zillow. Altadena had 32.
Real estate agents said clients who have chosen or are discussing it do so for a variety of reasons. I doubt they have the money to rebuild. Others are elderly and do not want the final years to be consumed by construction. Some have rental properties and decided that maintaining them isn’t worth the effort.
According to the agent, many of the people interested in purchasing burned lots were developers.
It’s probably not surprising. Vacant land is usually purchased with cash. Construction is time-consuming, stressful, expensive in normal times, not to mention in disaster areas with toxic waste.
It is available for sale in the 400 block of East Marigold Street in Altadena.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
“Building a home is one of the most complicated and highly regulated activities you could be engaged in,” said Brock Harris, a real estate agent at Keller Williams, who had the first burning lot list in Altadena sold to builders.
The influx of developers helps the community come back faster. But it also raises fears about gentrification and whether longtime owners are getting fair prices. These concerns are particularly high in middle class Altadena, where residents have declared through signs and assembly that “Altadena is not for sale.”
According to Zillow, at least eight burnt lots are available for sale at Altadena, most of which range from $500,000 to $600,000.
Lisa Hausler is a real estate agent at Caldwell Bunker, who lost her home in Altadena in the fire, and estimates she sells it for about two-thirds of what the land acquired before the fire. Haussler said he understands why people want to sell now, but he recommends they pause, saying that at least the cleanup is ongoing and that it might be easier to attract higher bids.
She shows that the developers are buying the show, which shows they believe they have the money to make.
“For our clients, we’ll really take the beat and see what happens,” said Hausler, who is planning to rebuild her home.
In the years before the fire, home prices in Altadena skyrocketed, boosting the wealth of existing homeowners, but many people who grew up here also placed prices.
It’s on sale in the 2900 block of Emerson Way by Altadena.
(Juliana Yamada/Los Angeles Times)
Research suggests that the value of the home could further escalate. Disaster recovery experts say it’s more modest measures that people usually end up hitting a wall during the reconstruction process and selling lots to developers and high-income people who build more expensive homes.
In the process, fire victims can see that excessive selling will be stripped of their wealth.
Raised in Altadena, Heavenly Hughes said she is particularly concerned about the town’s longtime black community given the income inequality of the country.
“As a black community, will we be wiped out?” Hughes, who runs a black-focused mutual aid organization, said my tribe will stand up.
Nicole Lambrou, a professor of urban planning at Cal Poly Pomona, learned about the reconstruction efforts in Paradise, California, where a camp fire destroyed more than 80% of the town’s homes in 2018.
She and her colleagues at UC Merced and UCLA discovered that destruction, income, education level and home prices all rose five years after they all rose.
“Everyone said there’s only a new demographic where people come in,” Rambrow said.
The process begins with the sale of the lot.
Kurt Frezilach, an agent at Berkshire Hathaway, said there are about four offers (all from the developers) in the approximately 9,000 square foot lot he listed for $625,000.
He says the client’s mother moved out of the property before the fire entered the supplementary facility, and the family decided to sell it “before the house was burned and many of its flooded into the market.”
The lot sold for $680,000 last month. Frejlach doesn’t know exactly what the bidders will build, but he estimated that they’ll spend $600,000 to build a house and sell it for $1.7 million.
Lambrou said policies restricting absentee homeownership could blunt gentrification, but said some agents would play the necessary role as many homeowners may not have the resources to rebuild.
“I don’t want to live in a neighborhood where there are empty lots of land everywhere,” said Ramirolivas, an agency real estate agent who is also a member of the burnt-out Altadena Town and Country Club. “The real estate community, we’re not trying to sell property from under the people. People need that help so we’re reaching out personally.”
Hughes from my tribe rise said she works to support the community in a different way.
She said she is trying to match fire victims with nonprofits that can provide funding to help people maintain their land. She is also trying to match people in Altadena who really want to buy and people who really need to sell.
“We want them to have options,” Hughes said, “to let them know that this is available.”
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