Many people were displaced during last year’s devastating wildfires across Los Angeles County, but getting back home is proving to be a difficult task.
New data shows how real estate investors are changing the housing market in areas destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires.
The ABC News Data Team poured through the latest figures from the Los Angeles County Assessor’s Office, and found home values have steadily dropped in the two fire-ravaged communities
Since the 2025 wildfires, the average home sale in what would become the Palisades Fire burn scar was around $3.6 million. In October, it dropped to $2.4 million. That’s a 33 percent decrease. In the Eaton Fire zone, the average home sale went from $1.8 million to around $684,000. That’s a 62 percent drop. Before the wildfires, home values had been increasing in both areas.
As home values decreased in the Palisades and Eaton fire areas, mortgage foreclosures began to show an uptick in the first nine months after the fires. There’s been at least 121 mortgage foreclosures in the Eaton Fire burn scar from January through September, and 91 foreclosures were recorded in the Palisades Fire area. Those totals pushed the foreclosure rate in the Eaton Fire area to 2.15 per 1,000 housing units, and the rate in the Palisades Fire area to 3.66 per 1,000 housing units — the highest for the areas over the past three years.
Despite movements that claim to “Protect the Palisades” and protests proclaiming “Altadena Is Not For Sale,” some who owned now vacant lots have had to move on.
The ABC News Data Team also found 44 percent of homes sold in both the burn scar areas were purchased by corporate entities. The percent of new corporate homeowners in the fire zones is about twice the national average of corporate homeowners, most of whom are small “mom-and-pop” investors.
In the Eaton Fire burn scar, eight companies are behind the buying of 40 percent of homes bought by corporate entities. In the Palisades Fire burn scar, 14 companies bought 22.6% of homes bought by corporate entities. This is raising concerns of monopolies in those areas.