Three weeks after the onset of the most destructive wildfires in California history, a new analysis has determined that the blazes wiped out almost $31 billion in property value.
The findings, based on exclusive data from CoStar Group, show that lost property value stems from approximately 11,200 residential and commercial properties burned in the fires.
The Palisades fire destroyed more real estate value than any previous wildfire in California’s history, and the Eaton fire ranks second, with both blazes torching an estimated 40,000 acres across Los Angeles.
More than 95% of real estate losses in the LA fires stem from single-family homes, leaving tens of thousands of residents affected, according to the analysis that used CoStar Group's commercial buildings and Homes.com residential properties databases.
The Palisades and Eaton fires have destroyed approximately 11,000 such homes valued at $29.7 billion, according to the analysis. The average value of homes destroyed in the Pacific Palisades exceeds $4 million while homes lost in the Eaton fire average close to $1.4 million.
Rebuilding costs will probably come in slightly higher. This data represents the value of the properties had they been sold before the fire. AccuWeather has estimated total costs from the fires could run as high as $250 billion.
Commercial damage
The destruction of apartment buildings in each fire outweighs damaged retail, office and industrial property. Among apartments, 74 buildings containing 870 units valued at an estimated $490 million were demolished in the Los Angeles fires. Nearly 40 apartment buildings have been destroyed by each fire, but the Palisades contained 70% of the units lost. Destroyed apartments there are concentrated just west of Palisades Village along Sunset Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway.
The majority of apartment buildings lost were small, containing less than 10 units. Many were built in the 1950s and most were subject to the state’s preexisting rent control measures. Among the largest is Sunset Plaza Apartments, a 75-unit building acquired in 2010 by Santa Monica-based Xenon Investments.
Also destroyed in the combined fires were 26 office buildings totaling 248,000 square feet and valued at an estimated $114 million, two industrial buildings totaling 208,000 square feet with an estimated $60 million value; and 23 other building types, including religious properties, totaling 210,000 square feet. No hotels were destroyed.
Most of the multifamily, office and retail buildings destroyed in the Eaton fire are located on a roughly 1-mile corridor along Lake Avenue between New York Drive and Altadena Triangle Park in LA County.
Retail locations along the corridor generally offered essential goods, services and affordable dining options. A few blocks east, the fire also destroyed office and retail buildings along Fair Oaks Avenue. Among the largest was a 13,200-square-foot Baja Ranch supermarket building.
The total loss of retail space was also nearly even among the two fires, with 186,000 square feet destroyed by the Palisades fire and 161,000 square feet lost in the Eaton fire. In all, the fires destroyed 67 retail buildings valued at an estimated $226 million.
In the Pacific Palisades, most of the area's retail stock is in Palisades Village, a high–end shopping and dining district along Sunset Boulevard surrounding Pacific Palisades Village Green, an area that contains the bulk of the local boutique office and medical office properties. In that area, Gelson's Pacific Palisades and a 20,500-square-foot Ralphs supermarket building were destroyed.