Shortly after the Eaton Fire destroyed thousands of homes in and around Altadena, signs sprung up across the community announcing “Altadena is not for sale.”
Now, nearly one year later, hundreds of Altadena families have concluded that rebuilding isn’t in their budget. In nearly half of recent deals for empty lots, homeowners are selling to investors.
Because Alta Dena contractors tripled their prices for work in new homes in anticipation of developers. The homeowners who live in the area are either established old families who don’t have money but lived in the area for a few generations or are part of the CalTech/JPL crowd that don’t worry about money. No one can afford to rebuild even if they wanted to. Not even the engineers. My friends lost their jobs and homes in the same year and they can’t go back. DOGE eviscerated JPL.