Altadena Real Estate on Pause until Rebuild Visibility Appears

Last January, flames from the Eaton fire ripped through the home of The Agency’s Lisa Ashworth. The roof caught on fire, the ceiling caved and windows flew open covering everything in soot.

Ashworth and her husband had plans to place their Altadena home on the market this spring, yet the for-sale sign’s been placed on indefinite hold post-Eaton fire.

Their home has lost about 30 percent of its value, Ashworth said, while the couple battles their insurance carrier over claims for the multitude of damages done to their home, ahead of a deadline many face as their Additional Living Expense funds, or ALE, run dry.

A rendering of one of Genesis Builders’ homes (Genesis Builders)

Since last January, property owners have used ALEs to pay for hotel rooms or rentals if they were unable to move back into their homes due to the fires. While some policies allow for ALE extensions beyond the minimum 24 months, a large wave of residents and the real estate industry expect to see many out of money come January 2027.

As that deadline inches closer, many residents like Ashworth are unable to make moves given issues and delays with insurance payouts.

Every homeowner’s struggle to get back home varies, which then holds implications for just how long it will take for Altadena’s broader residential real estate market to recover and resume the upward trajectory some were seeing pre-Eaton fire. Real estate professionals and Altadena residents seem to agree that getting to that point will take time.

Rebecca Zandovskis, senior director of business development at Genesis Builders who lost her own home in the Eaton fire, emphasized how “individualized” the rebuilding process is, noting that the first major challenge was navigating finances.

“Now, the concern is time,” Zandovskis said, adding how quickly the anniversary of the fire came up. “We blinked (and) it was a year… Decision fatigue is a real thing and that’s what people are dealing with right now.”

Fragile market

For the areas impacted by the Eaton fire, which was predominantly Altadena, 30 new residential construction projects have been completed, including a mix of single-family homes, repairs and accessory dwelling units, according to Los Angeles County data as of Monday. Nearly 1,100 single-family and multifamily projects are under construction, according to the county’s permitting tracker.

The construction completions represent less than 1 percent of the more than 6,700 residential structures that were damaged or destroyed in the Eaton fire.

Values of homes sold in the back half of 2024 compared to homes sold since the Eaton fire are down 33 percent in the burn zones, according to Ashworth citing MLS data. Lots took a similar nosedive immediately after the blazes, where trades were at about half of their pre-fire value.

There appears to be modest improvement as home values in Altadena were down 15.6 percent year-over-year in February, compared to being down 34.6 percent six months prior in August, according to Redfin.

Even still, Ashworth pushes back on anyone who may call this market stabilization, saying “it’s going to take years before there’s a recovery.”

Before the fire, Altadena’s housing market saw a runup Ashworth likened to Eagle Rock in the early 2000s. Millennials and Gen Xers that weren’t interested in growing their families in northeast L.A. began looking at Altadena.

Pre-fire, Ashworth said homes could sell in just a week. Now, homes in Altadena sit on the market for an average of over two months.

Pre-approval route

When Altadena begins to resemble the market of a few years ago hinges on the rebuilding timeline. Some are leaning into pre-approved home plans to speed the rebuilding process along, including Zandovskis.

Her and her husband’s Altadena home was the first of Genesis Builders’ pre-approved homes to break ground. Genesis was born from a joint venture with Cityview and Montage Development to assist with Altadena rebuilding.

The couple explored many options before signing a contract with Genesis. When Zandovskis, who was working for Cityview at the time, learned about pre-approved rebuild options, she said signing a contract made sense. Plus, the quotes Zandovskis received from other developers were too high for her family’s budget, given their home was “severely” underinsured.

“Money at this point is like playing monopoly,” Zandovskis said.

Her new two-story Mediterranean is one of 30 Altadena homes Genesis currently has in various stages of consultation, preconstruction and construction. A Genesis home starts at $692,900 with six pre-approved home plans – each of which offer four different architectural styles – with a one-year build guarantee.

An Altadena lot where Williams Rebuild is working with a family on a rebuild (Williams Rebuild)

Saving time

Like Genesis, Williams Rebuild counts 30 projects in various stages of preconstruction or permitting in Altadena. The company will begin going vertical on its first batch of 10 homes in the next couple weeks to be completed as early as Halloween.

Like many larger developers that have come into the fire-torn areas, Williams Rebuild relies on economies of scale to offer lower costs by grouping five to 10 projects at a time using pre-approved plans.

Going pre-approved can also dramatically reduce permitting times as Williams and other builders have seen.

After building in Los Angeles County for 30 years, Williams Rebuild President Dan Faina said the expedited process has meant anywhere from three or four days to four weeks to pull a permit on a pre-approved plan, while custom plans take anywhere from two to three months. Pre-fires, pulling permits could mean six months or longer at the county level, while working with the City of Los Angeles could take a little over a year, according to Faina.

“Four weeks is unheard of in L.A. for getting approval to pull a permit,” Faina said. “So even if it’s a month, we’re happy. Now there are still challenges … but the staff has been incredibly accommodating and working weekends responding to us.”

One source for pre-approved plans Williams Rebuild uses is the nonprofit Foothill Catalog Foundation.

Alex Athenson, the executive director of the Foothill Catalog, started the initiative with his wife, Cynthia Sigler, after being evacuated from their home on the border of Altadena and Pasadena. When they saw the challenges facing friends and neighbors in need of a more streamlined approach to rebuilding, the two architects decided to start the nonprofit.

The Foothill Catalog counts about 40 pre-approved plans that can be licensed by any homeowner or builder. Nothing structurally, such as walls or windows, can be changed; however, colors and finishes can be customized.

Most of the designs are for Altadena, but the group also has five preapprovals for the Palisades. Athenson echoed similar permit timelines outlined by Faina.

If Genesis, Williams Rebuild and other developers offering pre-approved rebuild plans are successful in attracting high volumes of clients – and if they make good on their timeline promises – it could be a step in the right direction for the restoration of Altadena’s overall residential market.