Real estate broker and television personality Josh Altman has made a grim prediction about the future of the Pacific Palisades community, which has recently been devastated by wildfires.
In an interview with Fox News, the star of “Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles” estimated that the majority of residents may not return to the area, citing insufficient insurance and rebuilding challenges as major factors.
Altman stated, “I don’t think 65% to 70% of people will go back to Pacific Palisades or Malibu.” He also said, “From all the calls I’ve received, a lot of people are asking me to send them listings and discuss (moving to) other communities.”
Altman also noted that some residents, after experiencing multiple wildfires in recent years, have chosen to completely leave the fire-prone area, saying, “I’ve received calls from many people that just don’t want to be in a high fire zone anymore.”
“You have to realize, this has happened multiple times,” he said. “Will lightning strike the same place again? These kinds of things will happen again.”
The fire destroyed a large number of homes in Pacific Palisades and left thousands of residents displaced. Altman mentioned that a significant obstacle to rebuilding homes is the “insufficient insurance” of many homeowners. His insurance agent indicated that this reality applies to at least 90% of residents in the area.
In an interview with TMZ, Altman predicted that local residents will move to surrounding areas like Santa Monica, Brentwood, Beverly Hills, and Bel Air, and the housing prices in these markets will rise.
Altman emphasized that rebuilding the entire community devastated by the fire will be a lengthy process. “Imagine living on a street where your house is the first one completed, while other houses on the street are still under construction. You definitely don’t want that,” he said.
He also mentioned, “People are already trying to sell their land to developers because they know they won’t go back there. Developers will build houses and keep them for themselves or sell them.”