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The neighborhood is likely to grow more expensive and exclusive as millionaire Angelenos demand a fast-track recovery.
By Ronda Kaysen
Ronda Kaysen reported this story from Los Angeles and New York and spoke with business leaders, city officials, researchers and homeowners.
Feb. 4, 2025Updated 6:10 p.m. ET
The Pacific Palisades — the Los Angeles community where more than 6,800 structures were destroyed and nearly 1,000 were damaged in the California wildfires — is among the wealthiest enclaves in the United States.
The average household income is $375,000, three times the city average, and the typical home is worth $3.7 million. The community is home to Hollywood royalty, chief executives, political donors and hedge fund managers.
Its deep-pocketed, well-connected residents have access to power that few have: They can pick up the phone and call Gov. Gavin Newsom, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or Steven Soboroff, whom the mayor appointed as the rebuilding czar. The sheer concentration of affluence — coupled with the frustration that the government’s response to one of the biggest American catastrophes in recent history has been inadequate — could greatly shape the future of the Palisades.
Past disasters have shown that in the aftermath, wealthier communities fare better than their poorer counterparts, and in its resurrection, the Palisades will be more expensive and more exclusive than it was before the fire tore through it last month, according to Max Besbris, a sociologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who studies how climate change impacts real estate values, residential decision-making and inequality.
“I suspect that because these are pretty wealthy households with a lot of economic and also political power, they’re going to be able to dictate the terms of their own recovery,” Dr. Besbris said.
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