... here's a helpful tool from cartoonist Stephan Pastis. Click the image to be taken to a larger version at the "Pearls Before Swine" Web page.
I don't know how many building and/or repair contractors there are in the greater Los Angeles area, but I suspect they're going to have enough work on their plates to keep them fully occupied for years to come.
I spoke with an acquaintance yesterday who's on the brink of abandoning his burned-out Los Angeles home and leaving the state. It was his grandfather's and his father's home before him. He had no mortgage on the house, but was under-insured compared to its current market value (or what was its market value prior to the fire). According to him, he's already been advised that the insurers will apply averaging to what they pay out, considering him to be self-insured for part of the value, so they won't give him the full amount for which he'd insured the house with them. Needless to say, he's not happy. However, his place of work went up in smoke along with several thousand houses, so he's suddenly free to consider a move. All things considered, he's probably going to take the insurance money for his house, sell the land on which it stood (which might still be worth a considerable amount in its own right) and head for a freer state with more opportunities for his teenage children. He was asking me all sorts of questions about Texas, particularly our housing prices, which are low enough compared to California that he can probably buy something acceptable for cash. If he can find a job that fits his qualifications and experience, I daresay he'll be heading this way within weeks.
I suspect he's likely to be the first of many . . .
Peter
10 comments:
At that, he's still likely to make a tidy profit off whatever he originally paid, considering how bonkers the California housing market is and how much people do not seem to learn from past experience.
Of course, he's also going to be contributing to "Californication," though it's likely that he'll just be contributing to messing up the real estate market rather than the politics.
Newsom has issues an Executive Order making it a crime to offer to buy the lot of a burned out house in LA
New Mexico has its points, but the Central City is under marxist occupation and the population is compliant.
Building contractors will be whizzing in the wind waiting for the phone to ring. The only work will be bulldozing and charred rubble hauling.
Even if they expedite, permits to rebuild anything will probably take years, not months.
And require a metric buttload of environmental clearances and reviews.
Wait and see.
People who lost a home can buy an already-built home somewhere else, stay at the Holiday Inn Extended Stay UFN, or move out of state.
Rebuild? Not likely this side of 2028 in most cases. And whatever they build will have to meet current code, not codes from 1967 or 1937.
And long before a shovelful of earth is turned, some of that real estate will be moving downhill when it rains in the spring. Tons at a time, in many cases.
A lot of SoCal is about to find out how big and intrusive government hereabouts has gotten in the last 60 years.
How sad.
The people who didn't build stupid houses in stupid places, nor vote for all that liberal busybody idiocy, will have to stop laughing uproariously long enough to shed a tear.
I wouldn't be holding my breath waiting for that to happen.
Had thought that many would use this tragedy as their motivation to escape from that very beautiful yet highly toxic state.
I would suggest to your friend to make sure who owns the liability for cleaning up the mess that is all that's left of his home. In normal circumstances that would be a part of the insurance payout, but in such a mass tragedy that might fall on FEMA or some other government agency.
As if to echo Aesop's comment:
https://nypost.com/2025/01/17/us-news/la-home-spared-during-fires-split-in-half-by-mudslide-raising-new-concerns-for-officals/
That landslide was caused by runoff from water pumped onto a fire by firefighters - no rain involved. A rain event will be much bigger, I'm sure.
My sister and her family live in Altadena - in a cute little 1940s cottage; their immediate neighborhood was spared, but the area north of theirs and closer to the mountains was pretty badly burnt over. I walked around the neighborhood when we visited this last June, admiring the gardens and the lovely little houses nearby, which ranged in age from early in the 20th century to mid-century. The Eaton fire went far, far into the suburbs, which made it even more horrifying. Usually, the FD can contain a fire in a dense suburb like Altadena. It's the spread-out properties back among the hills that burn most usually.
I am afraid that many Altadena residents, like your friend, who inherited family houses, will never be able to rebuild them. Even if they can - it will take years, and where will you live in the meantime? My parents lost their retirement house in 2003, to a wildfire in Northern San Diego County - and they were able to move into an RV on their property, while the house was being rebuilt. It still took a couple of years. Their county was a relatively sane one, and there were relatively few houses there which needed to be rebuilt.
You guys must hire some dipshit contractors. More likely the cheapest bid.
With some guys the trick is to underbid the job and then crank up the price with change orders. It's shit business and a scummy way to operate.
Bullshit like that driving my rates down, hiring illegals -again driving my rates down, the dumbass cartoon, and homeowners trying run everything I say past google are a couple of many reasons why guys like me don't do residential work. Residential work just isn't worth the money it pays.
And yes, I will dime out homeowners who hire illegals.
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
The people that lived in those homes voted for that "toxic state".
They're not going anywhere, unless its NYFC.
Not so much the tragedy, as any reasons to stay are now gone. The kids are grown, no house*, no job, why stay?
One reason some retirees move out of state.
*the saying is that "one fire equals three moves" for getting rid of stuff. Sad to say, his moving costs will be lower, just gas, meals and motels.
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