Los Angeles Wildfire Damage Estimated to Reach $30 Billion

The tally is in for the firestorms that swept through half of Altadena and the Pacific Palisades: up to $30 billion in real estate losses.

The Eaton and Palisades fires last month torched 9,700 single-family homes and condominiums, nearly 700 apartments, more than 2,000 units inside duplexes and bungalow courts, and up to 373 mobile homes, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis.

More than 300 commercial buildings were also destroyed, according to the study that compared Cal Fire’s assessments of buildings destroyed or damaged with Los Angeles County Assessor parcel records.

An unspecified number of churches, schools and hospitals were also lost.

The Times estimate of wildfire losses: $22 billion in Palisades and $7.8 billion in Altadena.

The fires destroyed structures on 56 percent of all the properties making up the Pacific Palisades, according to the Times. Nearly half of the properties in Altadena were burned down.

In all, more than 12,900 households were displaced by both fires.

About half the single-family properties destroyed in the fires didn’t have a homeowners’ exemption, suggesting they were rentals. Their loss could raise questions about the sustainability of the two communities’ base of affordable housing, according to the newspaper.

Some 770 rent-controlled units were destroyed in Pacific Palisades and will be lost as affordable housing if their replacements no longer fall under the city’s rent-control ordinance, according to the Los Angeles Housing Department.

The department said it is working with the city attorney to determine whether the ordinance can require the units to be rebuilt under the law, which applies to properties built before Oct. 1, 1978, according to a spokeswoman.

In Pacific Palisades, 79 single-family homes valued at more than $10 million were destroyed, where the median value was $3.7 million, according to the Times.

The median of the homes burned in Altadena was $1.2 million, with more than 2,400 homes valued at more than $1.5 million.

Government agencies that receive revenue from taxes stand to lose $61 million or more a year while homes are rebuilt, according to the Times analysis.

— Dana Bartholomew