The Inside Look with Xander Snyder - Episode 26

In this episode of Inside Look, Xander Snyder explores the impact of the Los Angeles wildfires through both personal stories and market data. Featuring First American colleagues Tori Robinson and Alicia Coleman, the discussion highlights displacement, rebuilding challenges, and evolving recovery efforts like modular housing and grant programs. While overall rent impacts were modest, local disruptions reveal how natural disasters can create uneven shifts in real estate markets.

Hi, I'm Xander Snyder, and this is First American's Inside Look where we explore trends shaping commercial real estate. Now, this episode is a little different. We're still going to talk about economics, but we're going to ground it in lived experience. And today I'm joined by two First American colleagues who also live and work in Los Angeles.

And just as a brief background on myself. I lived on the west side as as a kid until I was about 12, and then I spent the rest of my childhood in Glendale or La Crescenta, which is actually not far from where the Altadena fire was. Tori and Alicia, you want to tell us a little bit about your background and your experience in Los Angeles?

I'm Tori Robinson, also a native of Los Angeles...

"Native Angelino" as they say...

and I'm Vice President of Business Development for the Southern California division of National Commercial Services for First American.

I act as a liaison between our customers and our service teams, and I've worked in the title industry over 30 years in the Los Angeles area.

Thanks. And Alicia?

I am Alicia Coleman. I am not a Los Angeles native. I am originally from the Midwest, relocated out to Los Angeles in 2019, shortly before the Coronavirus kept us all in our homes.

And I am the Office Manager and Counsel of our National Commercial Services here in Los Angeles. The office is actually located in Pasadena, quite close to one of the boundaries of the Eaton fire.

And I've been with First American for 24 years.

Great. Thank you both. And yes, we are going to be talking about the Los Angeles wildfires and the after effects of them on the local real estate market. It's been a little over a year since they occurred, and the Palisades and Eaton Canyon fires really

upended life across Los Angeles as you both are familiar with. And beyond the tragedy of it the recovery has acted sort of like a localized economic shock where it's really intensified pressures that Los Angeles already had. Related to say, limited housing supply and rising insurance risk. Tory Robinson actually lost her home in the Palisades, and today on the episode she'll talk about her experience being displaced,

some of the challenges related to insurance uncertainty, and what rebuilding right now is actually looking like on the ground. And Alicia Coleman has been working with Steadfast LA, which is a nonprofit that was founded by Los Angeles real estate developer Rick Caruso. And this is helping coordinate recovery grants and modular housing solutions for folks who are impacted by the fires.

And she'll be able to bring a practical perspective on how alternative construction methods have been reducing some of the friction surrounding rebuilding. So, thank you both for joining and sharing your experiences about this fire. Tori let's start with you. When you think back to those first days after the fire, what stands out the most?

Well, Xander. I mean, the initial shock of it all, because I think for a lot of people who lived in the neighborhood I lived in, we didn't think our houses would burn. The fire was, you know, quite far away, it began quite far away from us. And I think most people were just thinking, oh, it won't come down this far off the hillside.

And yet, you know, hindsight is 20-20. We realize now, we just thought in the usual, a fire will start, the firefighters will fight that fire and we'll probably be okay... not realizing the great challenge for those firefighters with the wind, lack of resources, water, you know, the whole thing. And there's lots of discussion around that.

But you know, for the most part, we were just in shock when we found out that we had lost our home. But the interesting thing was immediately our neighbors created a text thread. And so we were, play by play people were just telling us what they knew about the fires before our homes burned. A lot of people confirming the homes had burned because they were sneaking in the neighborhood.

I don't know how they were getting in. So in that respect, those were, you know, the first moments around the fire and directly thereafter. And then for ourselves, after you realize your house burned down, then there is this thing where you really have to make so many decisions about logistics and... where are we going to be and stay for now temporarily? And what does that look like in the future?

And what are our basic needs? We actually needed toothbrushes and underwear and things like that. And you're doing all of these things, making these quite interesting decisions under a really horrible, diminished capacity emotionally. I mean you, it's so much to process. So shock, and then decision making in shock, which is very interesting

as I look back on it almost, you know, over a year later.

You lost your home in the Palisades, people often picture the Palisades as a very wealthy, large, high-end home sort of community. That's not really the full story, right? There are other people who live in the Palisades, can you talk a little bit about the community's makeup and composition?

Yes, I would love to. The absolute charm of Pacific Palisades, Number one, it is a beach community. Number two, contrary to popular belief, it is not blocks and blocks and blocks of mansions. Definitely not. There are neighborhoods that are diverse in architecture, home sizes, home ages, and, you know, variation in the wealth of those participants and people who live there.

And also, not to mention apartment buildings burned and condominiums burned, as well as commercial structures in the Palisades, so really a variety of important structures are now gone from the Palisades. When you go back to the Palisades now, what does recovery actually look like on the ground?

What level of development is occurring there? Yeah. I was actually there two weeks ago and I am seeing in my immediate neighborhood about six to eight homes being framed. So there is definite activity. And as I drove through the neighborhoods and around the neighborhoods, I am seeing framing. In fact, I believe we were told by a recent report, 400 to 500 starts in structures in the Palisades.

So perhaps some commercial and other, you know, but homes and other structures, 400 to 500 starts around the areas. Tori, thanks for sharing your experience with this. And, sorry you were in the burn zone. Thank you. It was a terrible time. Alicia, I would like to turn to you for a slightly different perspective on all of this.

You've been involved with the Los Angeles base organization that's been helping coordinate some of these rebuilding efforts. Could you describe that a little bit and what your role in it has been? Certainly. So we were watching the news so closely as the fires were coming through and saw Rick Caruso's announcement that he was going to be forming a nonprofit.

And this nonprofit was really, the goal was to streamline the rebuild processes and hopefully create some efficiencies and some cost savings for a lot of the victims of these two fire zones. So I reached out to the Caruso group and asked, how can First American help? How can I help?

We'd like to participate in this program. And once they really fully developed what this nonprofit was going to be, we understood that we did have an opportunity to partner here and offer some reduced title services, some reduced escrow services, to support what ultimately has become a grant process.

So victims of fires can apply for grants and they can use these grants towards the rebuild on their lots. And the rebuild is really kind of geared around modular housing. So again, adding some cost savings and some efficiencies to what some of these victims need so that they can get into a home as fast as possible.

And, and for folks who aren't, who aren't in commercial real estate or real estate at all, might not be familiar with what modular housing is, could you just briefly describe what that means and how it can help speed up some of the rebuilding process?

Certainly, I'm not the modular housing expert, but from what I understand the modular homes, the components, are built offsite and then brought on site, and so they can kind of clip together.

I like to think like a Lego set, or just something that takes a lot less time to construct on the actual lot. So if the lot is adequately prepared, the plans are built offsite and they're shipped on site, and these homes can go up rather quickly as a result.

Great, thank you. Now, the, the grants that Steadfast LA has been offering are, they're, they're fairly substantial grants.

Is that correct? That's correct. The grants that we've had an opportunity to start the grant process and the draw process all exceed $600,000.

So when you look at the Palisade side, what are you seeing in terms of a coordinated rebuilding effort or what sort of support exists on the west side of town?

So the Steadfast LA program is supposed to support both fires, the victims of both fires. We're seeing most of the grant recipients currently are victims of the Eaton fire. And as some may know and some may not, a lot of those homes in the Eaton area. Those homes involved generational wealth.

These were homes that often didn't have mortgages associated with them, and so this was how the wealth was being passed down generation to generation. So that was completely lost and very likely, underinsured. But as Tori mentioned, Palisades has a variety of housing as well, so some that looked like that, and some that might be more newer construction.

On the Palisades side, there is a Builders Alliance, and this is a group that's consolidated builders and architects making the rebuild process or attempting to make the rebuild process a little smoother for the homeowner so they can actually go into Builders Alliance and pick a floor plan. Just by putting in the property information, they can spit out and see what floor plan might be available, and they can start to look through some of the builders and architects and understand what some of the efficiencies and cost savings might be available to them.

It doesn't dictate who they have use, but I understand it's kind of like a matchmaking service for the victims and the builders and architects that want to participate in some of these lower cost options.

Are folks having any sort of challenge finding contractors, the people who can actually execute on these plans that they're designing?

I have not heard that there's been any labor constraints on either the Palisade side or the Eaton side. And to close this episode out, I just want to sort of tie together some of the individual short stories we shared with some data that we have on the rental market following the fires.

Because the displacement that occurred really does show up there fairly quickly. If you look at Zillow rent data and Cal fire damage data, the countywide impact was, on rents, was actually modest and somewhat temporary. So this was surprising to me. It was more muted than I initially expected.

Rent growth increased by just under 3%, 2.9% from December 24, 2024. And it increased to 4% in March, 2025. But then it basically retreated to where it was.

So overall rents were 2% higher than they were a year ago. But on a neighborhood level story this difference in rent growth is really more pronounced.

I published a longer version of this analysis on the First American Economics blog, there's maps, so you can see where all of these zip codes are. And it really makes clear the impact on the surrounding areas that the fires had.

So Tori and Alicia, thank you both for joining me on the Inside Look to share your personal experience from this disaster.

As an Angelino, I'm proud to see the progress that's being made. And I don't think I know a single person who lives in Los Angeles, who doesn't know someone who lost a home during this. So it's really something that's impacted the whole, the whole city. So before we wrap up, Tori and Alicia, are there any other organizations you'd like to highlight?

Any other way that people can get involved to support efforts like Steadfast LA?

I don't know if it's similar to Steadfast LA, but I did want to put a shout out to the American Red Cross because without them, so many people would've really been lost. And the American Red Cross was immediately there for support, grants to people, helping them find housing and doing so many things.

So, 'Yay' American Red Cross. Please donate. And they need blood right now in case you want to donate blood.

Great call out to the Red Cross.

I've no additional items that I want to bring up, but I do want to mention that if you want to donate to Steadfast LA, it's right there on their website. I really encourage folks to go and look up the website, take a look at some of these modular homes.

I was interested in what the difference between what does a mobile home and a modular home really look like? And it's striking. These homes are pretty spectacular what they're able to put together.

And I'm really proud to be able to donate my time and also with the support of my company, be able to donate our services to continue these grant processes.

So if you want to participate, I do encourage you to try clicking on that donate button on the Steadfast LA website.

Well, thanks again both for your time and thank you everyone out there for watching this episode of The Inside Look, we'll see you on the next one.