First Altadena property with home destroyed by Eaton Fire hits market, sells within days
The first Altadena property with a home that was destroyed by the Eaton Fire in January has officially sold, just days after hitting the market. The sale comes amongst ongoing talks throughout the community that their neighborhoods are not for sale.
Brock Harris, the agent who listed the home says that they had more than 100 interested buyers as soon as it was listed for sale, which he attributes to the fact that it's a flat, buildable lot in Los Angeles County — quite the rarity.
"Everyone here has three options: they can start trying to rebuild their house, they can wait and do nothing, or they can sell the lot and get on with their lives," Harris said.
He listed the Calaveras Street property, still full of ash and debris, for $449,000 last week. It sold for well over asking price, Harris said.
"Phone blew up. Twenty, thirty calls per day," he said. "But, I think we priced it well, we ended up with a dozen offers. It was a very competitive situation, mostly from professional home builders."
The woman who owned the property said she didn't want to wait years to rebuild because she was renting the property out as an investment.
"There's this whole thing about, like, are developers going to ruin Altadena? Is someone gonna build it for themselves, or will an evil homebuilder buy it?," Harris said. "But every call I got from people wanting to build homes, they want to build in Altadena and they want to build Altadena style homes."
He estimates that the city's comeback will likely be a mixture of families already in the area and professionals rebuilding at different paces.
It's just this, that has families like the Munoz'z concerned with the future of their city.
"It was a lot of family homes, it really sucks," said Jeanette Munoz, whose home was destroyed when the Eaton Fire erupted on Jan. 7, destroying thousands of homes and businesses. "I am worried about it, but I hope they stick it out and rebuild stronger than ever."
On Saturday, community members gathered at an event encouraging fire victims not to sell their homes to developers.
All sporting shirts stating "Altadena Not For Sale," they spoke to the crowd and pushed for people to continue the city's legacy, especially its Black neighborhoods.
They were joined by Grammy-nominated musician and Southern California native Aloe Blacc at the event. His children attend school in the area, which was burned down in the fire.
"I have so much love for Altadena," said Blacc, who's real name is Egbert Nathaniel Dawkins III. "My goal is to use my influence and relationships I have to bring attention to Altadena, that it's not for sale, allow the families who were pushed here to the foothills because of restricted convenants, red lining, over years and years and decades, to continue to have their generational wealth and pass that down to their families."
"Now is the time to come together, now is not the time to sell," said Anthony McFarland, with Lift International Church. "Now is not the time to sell your property for four hundred or five hundred thousand dollars, when developers already know your property two years from now, five years from now is double — triple — the value."
The event was planned after multiple residents reported being contacted in regards to their properties, less than a month after the fire first broke out.
"People right now are first being approached by vultures, who want to take our land, and we want to be sure that our voices are heard and that new build is inclusive of our right to return," said Heavenly Hughes, a community activist who helped plan the event.
