Fires leave LA residents scrambling for housing

As two major fires continue to rage in the Los Angeles area, thousands of displaced residents are scrambling for housing. Immediately.

Top luxury real estate agent Dylan Eckhardt, whose clients include Justin Bieber and Rihanna, says he has received 36 calls in the past 18 hours from people whose homes in Malibu and Pacific Palisades were destroyed. Displaced Altadena residents are also trying to find housing on the other side of the city.

“I need a four-bedroom.” ‘Take me to Nieuwpoort.’ A lot of people ask me about Orange County,” says Eckhardt. “It’s total chaos in the Palisades right now. People ride around on dirt bikes, trying to help friends and throwing animals on their backs. It’s worse today than it was three days ago. And driving through Malibu is like Armageddon.”

Eckhardt represents 160 off-market homes across Los Angeles and Orange County that he is putting on the market to meet sudden demand. He is waiving his significant commission for anyone directly affected by the fires. And it’s not just finding a place to rent or buy in the immediate aftermath of the fires that’s a problem. After the fires are extinguished, rebuilding will be a long and difficult process.

“If that’s the case, it will take us five, maybe eight to 12 years to rebuild the country,” Eckhardt says, pointing to the Kafka-esque permitting process in the area, especially in Malibu. “If you didn’t know someone before the fire, it took 18 months to two years to get a permit to redecorate even a bedroom in your house. Now we’re looking at about five years [before construction can even begin].”

On Friday, state and local officials vowed at a news conference about the fire that a massive effort would be made to cut red tape to speed the region’s recovery. Yet in the short term, tens of thousands of residents are now unexpectedly looking for new homes.

A Westside real estate agent who asked not to be named says she has made several calls to clients affected by the fires. ‘They think they’re going back [after evacuating]. But they are in shock,” the broker said. “On Tuesday night they took everything they could get. On Wednesday people were in shock. They couldn’t comprehend it. And now people are frantically and maniacally trying to find a place to live without knowing the future.”

The clients, ranging from Hollywood writers to executives, some with young families, are asking for apartments instead of houses and nowhere near fire-prone areas that have long been desirable, such as Malibu and Pacific Palisades. “Even if it’s safe, they’ll say, ‘I don’t want a house,’” the agent adds. “They want an apartment or an apartment. It’s absolute madness there.”

The fires, which have killed at least 11 people so far, came at a tight time for the property market, with inventory already low as potential sellers hesitated to put their properties on the market as they waited to to see if there would be interest. interest rates will rise or fall in the coming months.

With the fires causing the most damage in the upscale Pacific Palisades and the more economically diverse community of Altadena, north of Pasadena, both ultra-wealthy and ordinary Angelenos have been hit hard. An estimated 80 to 100 IATSE members have lost their homes, including many in Altadena. Rents in Los Angeles had already become unsustainably high, especially for entertainment workers affected by last year’s strikes and production slowdown.

The list of notable names affected continues to grow and includes Anthony Hopkins, Billy Crystal, Paris Hilton, Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag, Milo Ventimiglia, Anna Faris, James Woods, Diane Warren, Steve Guttenberg, Mel Gibson, Tina Knowles, Miles Teller, Cobie Smulders, Melissa Rivers, Jeff Bridges, Eugene Levy and Adam Brody and Leighton Meester.

Although Eckhardt’s home in Malibu’s Point Dume neighborhood has been spared so far, he has lost more than $63 million worth of exclusive listings that went up in flames over the past three days. He expects this number to continue to grow.

“No one will ever insure homes here like this again,” he adds. “No one is going to insure a house in Malibu for $15 million anymore.”

Some homeowners may not be able to recoup the value of their now-destroyed homes. In July, State Farm dropped coverage for 72,000 homes and apartments in California, including 1,600 in Pacific Palisades alone. On Friday, state Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara pledged that the state would impose a one-year moratorium to prevent homeowners’ insurance policies in the fire-damaged areas from being canceled and not renewed.

Those whose homes escaped the flames but fled because they are in an evacuation zone are also experiencing looting. Eckhardt has advised his clients not to post about their ordeals on social media.

“I call all my A-list clients – every NBA guy, football player, celebrity – and tell them, ‘You suck. Don’t post your damn house again because the fire is three miles away. It won’t hit your house.’ But ‘Have you been evacuated?’ You just told the whole damn world that you evacuated with your damn MVP trophies, your damn house stuff, your World Series rings [left unattended]. It’s like the Bling Ring all over again.”

In a sign that demand for high-quality homes will soon exceed supply, Eckhardt organized viewings for four rental properties on Thursday. The price tag on the homes ranges from $15,000 to $45,000 per month. About 55 people viewed the homes.

“We just need to start moving people and just let people start over,” he says. “Shit sucks. The pain will come. The sadness and grief will happen. But we just have to do the next right thing.”

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