L.A. Residents Demand Answers a Year After Deadly Wildfires

The one-year anniversary of the deadly wildfires is being marked with rallies across Los Angeles County, with residents demanding answers.

"It's just been so sad," Cindy Ambuehl, Pacific Palisades resident and real estate agent, tells Realtor.com®. "Everyone's walking around still in shock. I don't think they've shaken the trauma of it."

Ambuehl's home survived the fire, but was damaged by smoke and embers. This past year, her focus as a real estate agent has taken a noticeable shift beyond helping her clients buy or sell, to also helping them navigate the unknowns.

"This year, real estate has been from a place of desperation, heartache, necessity, sadness, and confusion," Ambuehl explains.

The total value of destroyed homes in the fire zones of the Pacific Palisades fell from $14.7 billion to $10.8 billion, and in Altadena, from $7 billion to $4.7 billion, according to Realtor.com housing data analysis between late 2024 and the second half of 2025.

Overall, the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025 caused between $76 billion and $131 billion in property and capital losses, according to the UCLA Anderson Forecast just months after the fires. Thousands of people are still displaced, with rebuilding held up by red tape and insurance payouts slow to come in.

Rallying residents

On the one-year anniversary, Los Angeles County communities came together to voice their concerns to city leaders. Thousands showed up for the "They Let Us Burn" rally in the Pacific Palisades, according to The Society Group, who was attended the event. The concerned residents, many of whom are still displaced, are looking for accountability from city leaders.

"Some are just selling their lots as their insurance didn’t cover rebuilding. They don’t want to go through the hassle of building," Carl Gambino, founder of the Gambino Group, explains to Realtor.com. "Keep in mind Pacific Palisades and Altadena were fantastic neighborhoods with great senses of community and someday in the future they will be again."

Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire Survivors Network held a press conference detailing recovery efforts and funding resources needed to move forward. Celebrities are also coming together. A concert featuring Brad Paisley and Mandy Moore will take place in Altadena.

In the city of Los Angeles, over 1,400 rebuilding permits have been issued in and around the Pacific Palisades. More than 1,740 construction plans have been approved and 417 projects have started construction, but only two homes have been fully rebuilt.

"The pace of city permitting has been extremely challenging, and many people are surprised by how long it takes to move from plans to approvals," Rochelle Atlas Maize, executive director of luxury estates with Nourmand & Associates, tells Realtor.com.

"The lack of clear timelines has been one of the hardest parts. People can handle bad news better than vague or shifting expectations. The process has required a great deal of patience, financial resilience, and emotional stamina," Maize adds.

Rebuilding L.A.

In Los Angeles County, over 1,110 permits have been issued in hard-hit Altadena. Construction has been finished on four single-family homes, one multifamily property, and three accessory dwelling units.

Last month, Ted Koerner, 67, was the first Altadena resident, displaced by the Eaton fire, to receive a certificate of occupancy for a fully rebuilt primary home.

In the coastal community of Malibu, where the Palisades fire burned multimillion-dollar mansions to the ground, zero "certificates of occupancy" have been signed off on.

The slow process in the upscale community, with a population near 11,000, has been heartbreaking. To put into perspective how daunting the rebuilding has been, Malibu Mayor Marianne Riggins told Realtor.com in November 2025, that they were still trying to recover from the Woolsey fire in 2018—which wiped out hundreds of homes.

Since our first interview with Riggins two months ago, only five more construction permits were approved, bringing the total to 22 building permits—out of the nearly 600 homes lost a year ago.

The same rebuilding struggles are felt throughout Los Angeles County. Residents are finding ways to remain in the area, but it comes not just at a financial cost, but an emotional one, too.

"We are also seeing a lot of hybrid solutions. I recently rented a home to a client while they rebuild in the Bluffs," Shauna Walters, real estate agent with Sotheby's International Realty, tells Realtor.com.

"Their cousin is moving back into a family home in Huntington, and their parents are moving into the condos behind Gelson’s this weekend. People are mixing buying, selling, renting, and rebuilding all at once, based on what feels manageable for their family. Honestly, almost all of it has been emotional."

Gov. Gavin Newsom declared Jan. 7 a day of remembrance.