After devastating wildfires engulfed parts of LA, the lots that once were filled with homes and businesses are now being sold for hundreds of thousands over their asking price, despite concerns over future wildfire risks.
A burned lot in the Pacific Palisades that was destroyed by the LA wildfires last month has recently sold for $1.2 million, hundreds of thousands over its asking price, even though the land itself is still uninhabitable, according to reports.
Both the Palisades and Altadena were impacted by the wildfires last month, and each location has now had burned properties sold to new owners. The wildfires have been called one of the costliest disasters in US history. Governments often push for quick rebuilds in times of devastation such as this, and this is no exception especially considering LA is set to host both the FIFA World Cup and Summer Olympics.
Char Miller, a professor of environmental analysis at Pomona College, told CNN that some experts should rethink the typical responses of rebuilding in times of disaster due to how much more climate change is intensifying. Miller said that local governments should buy damaged property from homeowners and build “buffer zones” in those areas to prepare for future weather events.
“It’s going to take billions of dollars to recover in LA. What if we spend some of that money proactively to reduce the amount of money we would have to spend after a natural disaster again?”
California’s Department of Forestry and Fire Protection estimated that over 16,000 structures were damaged in the Palisades and Eaton fires.
Experts say that the government and taxpayers will save on future firefighting and relief efforts if they clear homes from dangerous high-risk areas. In general, natural disasters such as floods, hurricanes, and wildfires have led to multibillion-dollar payouts.
“In 2024, the United States had 27 confirmed weather disaster events with losses exceeding $1 billion each,” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
“In California, urban sprawl has added to the city’s fire risk, as a growing number of homes have been built on land designated as the wildland-urban interface — areas that are high risk for catastrophic wildfires,” according to Judson Boomhower, an assistant professor of economics at the University of California San Diego and a contributor to the US National Climate Assessment.
California alone added 1.3 million properties between 1990 and 2020. “Building in areas prone to natural disasters can increase insurance costs for even those homeowners who don’t live in extreme danger zones,” according to Penny Liao, an economist at Resources for the Future, a nonprofit focused on improving environmental and economic outcomes.
“The fires will directly impact the availability and affordability of insurance in California in general. When we build in a risky area, obviously there’s a question of whether people truly understand the risk.”
California’s FAIR plan, the state’s last-resort fire insurance provider, stated that it would need to implement a charge of $1 billion onto insurance companies so they don’t run out of funding, according to CNN.
Richard Shulman, LA real estate agent who is on the listings for the first burned lot in the Palisades this month, stated that wildfire risks before this year weren’t a major concern for prospective buyers in those areas.
“[I] fielded around 60 or 70 calls from interested buyers for the listing. None asked about the area’s future fire risks. All the people I spoke to expect something to be done to rebuild the homes and the overall neighborhood that would significantly reduce the long-term risk,” he said.
Boomhower said that states like Florida and Louisiana should look to California and rethink some homebuilding efforts in high risk areas, as both states have high flood risks.
“There are properties that flood over and over. There’s a lot of interest in figuring out how to abandon those places because we know there is an incredibly high probability that they will suffer these losses again and again,” he said.
“A place like the Palisades has a really high wildfire risk, but what that means is that sometime in the next 30 years another fire will come through there. It’s a very different risk.”
Eric Mastrota is a Contributing Editor at The National Digest based in New York. A graduate of SUNY New Paltz, he reports on world news, culture, and lifestyle. You can reach him at eric.mastrota@thenationaldigest.com.
