Whether you’re refining your business model, mastering new technology, or finding a strategy to take advantage of the next market boom, Inman Connect New York prepares you to take a bold step. The next chapter is about to begin. Please join us. Join us and thousands of other real estate leaders from January 22-24, 2025.
The scope of the wildfires ravaging Los Angeles had grown to unimaginable proportions by Thursday, with a fifth fire burning in the Hollywood Hills, the morning after the largest blazes, the Palisades and Eaton fires, destroyed at least 2,000 buildings. The building was destroyed and five people were killed.
Much of Los Angeles County remains under a red flag warning through Friday, meaning the strong Santa Ana winds that have fueled the fires in recent days could continue to pose challenges for firefighters.
Forecasting firm AccuWeather estimates that economic losses from the fires, including property damage and damage to the film and television industry, could reach up to $57 billion. On Wednesday, CoreLogic estimated that more than 456,000 homes in the Los Angeles-Riverside metro area are at moderate to high risk of fire damage, with estimated rebuilding costs of about $300 billion.
agents work together
As some evacuees have begun to pivot from active evacuation modes to find new housing modes, agents are proactively shifting and networking to find housing options for those in need. I reached out my hand.
“Since yesterday, the phones of people looking for me have been ringing nonstop. [housing] It’s an option,” Josh Altman of Douglas Elliman’s Altman Brothers told Inman.
“This is clearly the worst situation anyone can imagine in terms of destruction, people losing their homes, people being displaced.”
Despite uncertainty about when the fire would be contained and how far the damage would continue to spread, officials wasted no time in gathering resources for the community.
“As a company, we have developed a short-term lease list,” Nick Segal of Carrollwood Estates told Inman. “All of our employees are inputting individually and we already have 30 opportunities. So it’s just amazing that we’ve been able to bring it to life and people are using it as a first resource. I’m impressed.”
KW Cares, a 501(c)(3) that supports Keller Williams employees and their families during emergencies, is also collaborating with KW leaders at the regional and franchise level through ongoing preparedness calls as the situation evolves. . KW employees can apply for emergency grants to address basic health, welfare, housing and transportation needs at https://www.kwcares.org/.
Twenty-five of the agency’s employees and employees were left homeless in the fire, CEO Mauricio Umansky told Inman on Thursday. But that didn’t stop the company’s members from using all their resources to find housing for their displaced customers.
“These people are under a lot of stress,” Umansky said. “They’re homeless. They’re living in hotels, friends’ houses, etc… We’re just trying to provide exceptional service and go above and beyond with the utmost empathy. is.”
Company members were also awaiting delivery of dozens of Starlink internet kits to ensure those in affected communities had a source of internet access.
Yesterday, Paul Salazar of Hilton & Hyland’s Paul Salazar Group released a resource document on temporary housing, transportation, supplies and equipment that community members can donate and access by filling out a Google form. sent to your network. according to their needs.
“Today, my team and I will be making a number of calls to neighboring communities. [Pacific] Palisades,” Salazar said. “So we commission a lot of work in Brentwood to see if people with vacant properties have vacant properties and would be willing to rent them out on a short-term or long-term basis for families looking for a home. I’ve talked to a lot of my agent colleagues and they’re all doing the same thing. We’re thinking about how we can contribute to the community.”
How fires are reshaping markets
Umansky said it is difficult to predict exactly how the disaster will affect the real estate market in the coming years as many things remain in flux. Umansky said there was also talk that increased demand and less available inventory would increase the value of existing homes in the area, but it’s still difficult to say at this point.
“There are many questions and very few answers at this point,” he said. “All I know is that once this disaster is over, we’re going to find a way to rebuild our communities…and from my perspective, obviously, we’re going to learn from this disaster and never again.” We need to prevent the same thing from happening.”
Salazar noted that much of the Pacific Palisades has been “completely disappeared.” That means families who once lived there are now making plans to move on, as it will likely take years to rebuild their homes, schools and restaurants. ., it was demolished. It’s unclear how many will want to stay there to rebuild, move to other similar areas in LA, or leave the city altogether. Either way, the process will be monumental.
“It’s not a big piece of land where a developer can buy everything and build a community or something that they can build very quickly,” Salazar explained. “We all own each lot independently and we’re talking about hiring an architect to build custom homes. I mean, it’s going to be a total nightmare… The amount of movement of trucks and people on the streets is already terrible, but now it’s going to happen…I don’t know how it will be done. How do you organize it?
Two nearby alternative areas where many evacuees are expected to choose to move in the short or long term are Brentwood, Santa Monica, and Bel Air, which still have a residential feel but are not far from Santa Monica. said the agent. For example, the actions of cities such as Malibu. Those who don’t feel as connected to the area may choose other family-friendly communities like Manhattan Beach or Palos Verdes.
Salazar said the wildfires have also had the effect of causing some home sellers to take their properties off the subdivision market for the time being and instead list them as rentals because demand for temporary housing is so high. Ta.
“In Brentwood, Santa Monica and the surrounding area, we are seeing people have the option of taking their homes off the market and putting them on the rental market. Why sell now? Get a high rental price You can also sell it later.
Altman added that the downturn in the rental market will likely cause prices to rise in high-demand areas, for better or for worse.
“Unfortunately, I think demand will drive lease prices up, especially in an area like Brentwood,” Altman said. “I think the market for both rentals and sales is going to go through the roof in Brentwood because it’s close enough to the Palisades that we can get back to as much normality as possible because there are so many families living there. ”, their children go to school in those areas and they are also left behind, so they can’t just pick them up and go somewhere else. Their whole life is there. ”
Another byproduct of the fires, Altman added, is that some sellers who were unsure whether to put their properties on the market this year now feel motivated to list their properties. In LA. ”
Although the damage is “worse than we could have imagined,” the bright spot in the tragedy facing the city is that all of the community members have come together and worked tirelessly to help others in the face of disaster. first responders, Altman said. An unprecedented firestorm.
“They were true heroes and incredible,” Altman said.
Resources and Donations
Email Lillian Dickerson
