The beginning of 2025 struck Los Angeles hard when fire arose from the hills. On Jan. 7, the Pacific Palisades of western California was hit with a wave of heat leaving many without their homes.
It is widely believed that those who have lost their homes in the Palisades fire can just rebuild, but that is not always the case. According to KQED News, a majority of the residents who once lived in the Palisades neighborhood had inherited the home from their families. In which case, due to Proposition 13, the inheritors only had to pay the original property tax rate, which can be as low as $4,000 a year, while newly registered owners pay almost up to $40,000.
Along with the tax rate, many insurance policies will only cover the value of the home which will not be the same as the cost to rebuild it. For example, if the house was worth $30,000 it could cost up to $1 million to rebuild the exact same home.
Affordable Housing Administrator Martha Monroy believes rebuilding would be a challenge.
“The materials and everything will cost more,” Monroy said. “Cost wise to build a home or even for a contractor – it would just be very costly.”
Los Angeles is not cheap and for urban neighborhoods, such as the Palisades, the cost to rebuild along with labor rates and specific materials that are required to be up to code would be high. According to Construction Elements, the estimated cost to rebuild per square foot would be between $300-$400, that’s about $450,000-1,000,000 per homeowner. However, only some will have to worry about the cost of rebuilding because not everyone’s land is reusable.
While some may be planning to rebuild, they have not taken into consideration whether the land is still usable. Many of the homes lost in the fire are around one hundred years old and built from toxic materials that need to be collected. The clean up to collect the debris and to navigate the natural landscape could take years. Due to this neighborhood located in the mountains, it is challenging for crews to clean up and operate in the area.
The recent rainfall in Los Angeles hasn’t been helpful either. The area of Palisades, which primarily consists of dirt and debris, is now prone to mudslides. Most of the land is unstable. The construction of many homes was unsafe from the start, and the impact of natural climate change has worsen the situation
The mental and emotional burden of rebuilding the Palisades neighborhood. According to ABC News, people that have suffered from a natural disaster feel a large sense of grief, panic and fear. Some of the mental factors people will experience include insomnia, depression and an increase in alcohol usage.
Many Los Angeles locals watched their community burn down and stayed on the edge of their seats waiting to be evacuated. When asked about the rebuilding of the palisades, 27-year-old Richard Rodriguez remains hesitant.
“I mean the lack of preparation would just happen again,” Rodriguez said. “If they were to rebuild and they don’t have the proper preparation the whole thing can happen once again.”
Rodriguez, a lifelong Los Angeles resident, has grown skeptical of the men in charge of keeping his home safe. There is a possibility that if the community was brought back there are still the environmental threats that they could burn again.
The consequences of the Palisades Fire shows the complications and suffocating process of rebuilding. Not only do financial burdens play a large role, but the mental psychological stress affects the community greatly. Grief and anxiety weigh on the people of Los Angeles and the Palisades may never return to what it was before.
