After making a shocking prediction that up to 70% of Pacific Palisades residents won’t return to rebuild and live in their homes, former Million Dollar Listing real estate agent Josh Altman is explaining exactly why.
“They will not not return because they do not want to return. Of course they want to go back there — They won’t because it’s simple math,” Altman said on “FOX Business Live” Friday.
“I don’t believe they’re going to be able to afford the rebuild with most people being very underinsured, with the costs of the construction, the lumber, the steel. We’re talking $1,000 [per] building footholds in the Palisades and Malibu.”
Southern California has been dealing with a wave of wildfires since January. 7.
Over 50,000 hectares have been burned, 28 people have been killed and over 16,000 homes and buildings have been completely destroyed.
President Donald Trump declared a national emergency on Friday after touring the devastation in Los Angeles with residents who were personally affected by the catastrophic event.
Early estimates put the total financial loss from the fires at $50 billion, according to AccuWeather and JPMorgan.
In the lead up to the fires, several insurance companies either left, stopped writing new policies or reduced coverage in the Golden State.
“And that’s on top of getting a construction crew to show up on your site when there are 16,000 structures that have burned between homes, schools, commercial spaces. It’s a disaster,” Altman added.
“That’s what I’m saying, I don’t know what they’ll do with the insurance.”
Newsom signed an aid package where the state will spend $2.5 billion to help recover from the wildfires.
But Altman wants Newsom to take his response a step further by removing the bureaucratic hurdles that make building homes in California time-consuming and expensive.
“The recipe for success will be cutting the bureaucracy. Building a house, the process in California, which is just wrapped in red tape, is absolutely impossible: a year to get a permit; you have the Coastal Commission, which could take another two years. It’s time for the governor to start cutting red tape. We have to move forward as a team,” he said.
“There have been a lot of ordinances and a lot of things at the state and local level that have to go. The mansion tax, that was the worst tax ever passed,” Altman continued.
“Get rid of all the people who lost their homes. Wildlife ordinance, get rid of it. Start trimming the red ribbon. This is how we will come back to life [a] Los Angeles strong.”
The real estate expert, who spoke ahead of the president’s visit, hoped Trump seeing the devastation with his own eyes would lead to more federal aid and assistance.
“You have to see it. I’ve hiked the Palisades, I’ve hiked Malibu. It’s much worse in person than you could ever imagine. Hopefully this will open up funding at the federal level.”
Critical fire conditions eased across the region on Friday, with isolated pockets of rain expected through the weekend.
Beneficial rain will peak in coverage Sunday, but could cause mudslides in burned areas.
Fox News’ Stepheny Price and FOX Weather’s Chris Oberholtz contributed to this report.
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