SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

Heather Ozur is president of the CAR and a REALTOR® at the RECollective in Palm Springs, Calif.

She praised the National Association of REALTORS®  for covering 100 percent of RRF’s administrative costs, so every dollar donated goes directly to disaster relief efforts. 

“For more than 24 years, the RRF has been a lifeline for communities affected by disasters, providing housing-related assistance.

Since 2001, the foundation has distributed more than $43 million in aid, helping more than 25,000 families nationwide,” according to an NAR statement released when $1 million was granted to California wildfire relief.

“When a major disaster occurs, RRF mobilizes its outreach efforts and turns to NAR members and other constituents for support.”

 

 

 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

Heather Ozur is president of the CAR and a REALTOR® at the RECollective in Palm Springs, Calif.

“We need to build more affordable homes. Our lobbying team was just in Washington, D.C., to support the bipartisan More Homes on the Market Act (H.R. 1340) which would raise the capital gains tax exclusion on the sale of a primary residence,” she said, noting that more people would sell, increasing housing availability if they didn’t face high capital gains taxes.

“Zoning needs to allow more homes.

We need to revisit constraints that makes building so costly, so we can create more affordable and attainable housing.”

 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

Heather Ozur, president of the CAR, said it continues to play a leadership role in working with local governments to fund relief and rebuilding.

“Wildfires are a huge concern nationally and in California.

The question is how do we help with fire hardening in the future?

We must find the best ways of mitigating against disaster for residential and commercial buildings,” she said, noting that property owners could benefit from government grants to pay for retrofitting against wildfires.

“The wildfires exacerbated an insurance crisis that we already had in California. We need to continue to work with state officials to help alleviate that and ensure that every family can insure their home,” Ozur said.

She explained that many families in working- and middle-class parts of Los Angeles County, such as Altadena, may not have enough of an insurance settlement to rebuild.

The wildfires took away affordable housing in one of the highest housing cost areas in the nation.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

CAR president Heather Ozur said while CAR works to leverage more donations and government support, it also is working on several long-term issues.

“We are working in the Sacramento Capital with legislators, the governor and the commissioner of insurance to help extend relief.

We successfully got a price gouging moratorium extended to July,” she said of disaster-related protections against price hikes for hotels, motels and rental housing plus prohibitions on evictions of tenants to relist the rental at a higher rate.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

“With so many homes and businesses lost and a housing crisis that existed long before the fires, REALTORS® recognize the importance of reaching out and helping their communities to recover and rebuild,” CAR President Heather Ozur said when the funds were received.

“As residents begin the long process of starting over, the REALTOR® community is glad to be able to provide some immediate support in their time of need.”

The CAR’s REALTOR® Member Grant Program also made $1 million available to REALTORS® and staff members.

The grants within the REALTOR® family, available for up to $10,000 per household for disaster relief, were quickly exhausted in Los Angeles County.

 

 

 

 

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

Heather Ozur, president of the CAR and a REALTOR® at the RECollective in Palm Springs, Calif., said National Association of REALTORS®  funds were granted to assist with housing relief or displacement for anyone whose home was destroyed or damaged by the fires.

The $1,000-per-household grants — for mortgage relief, rental payments, or temporary housing, such as hotel stays due to displacement from their primary residence—were fully disbursed in a month’s time.

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

In late January, NAR’s REALTORS® Relief Foundation (RRF) made a $1-million grant available to the CAR to provide disaster relief support to families affected by the wildfires.

“Agents who are REALTORS® deeply understand that in times of crisis, we step up to help our communities remain resilient and united, even in the face of devastation like what we’re witnessing in Southern California,” RRF President Greg Hrabcak said in statement when the funds were granted.

“This grant underscores RRF’s dedication to providing assistance during the critical weeks and months following a disaster, and we are committed to helping families stay in their communities and begin to rebuild their lives.”

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA WILDFIRE RESPONSE

REALTORS® TAKE ACTION TO HELP COMMUNITIES

Severe wildfires impacted several areas within Los Angeles County in Southern California. REALTORS® responded rapidly.

“After burning for 24 days, both fires were fully contained on Jan. 31, with over 37,000 acres burned and more than 16,000 structures destroyed.

At least 29 people were killed in the two fires—17 in the Eaton Fire and 12 in the Palisades Fire, according to the Los Angeles County medical examiner,” ABC News reported.

The National Association of REALTORS® (NAR) and California Association of REALTORS® (CAR) were in action before all the flames were extinguished across 45 square miles of the densely populated area.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Wildfire Adaption Principles

Regional Scale 

1.     Actively manage the forest

2.     Create firebreaks

3.     Harden infrastructure (electrical, water, sewer, storm)

4.     Create redundant emergency notification systems

5.     Provide multiple ingress and egress routes and a regional emergency evacuation plan 

Community Scale

6.     Prohibit dead-end streets

7.     Foster neighborhood fuel reduction and places of refuge

Home Scale

8.     Codify defensible space

9.     Require fire-resistant building shells

10.Encourage aggressive code enforcement

 

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

University of Pennsylvania Wharton Real Estate Professor Benjamin Keys has been studying the true cost of homeownership, including the expense of disasters and insurance to protect against them, for more than a decade .

“These are tough choices for those on a fixed income,” Keys said.

“We think of homeownership as a way to lock in our costs … It’s desirable relative to renting, where a landlord can jack up the rent each year.

But now property taxes have gone up in [vulnerable] areas, to fund infrastructure to combat flooding and these areas also have seen a sharp insurance rate increase.

A lot of homeowners don’t understand flood is not covered by primary insurance, and they don’t realize flood maps are drawn in highly political ways and don’t account for all types of flood-related risks.”

While many want to blame insurance companies for high rates, growth patterns that place people closer to risk, in an environment with many more costly disasters, is a major factor.

“We’ve been moving southward as a country for years now.

We’ve been moving into riskier areas,” he said, noting dense development in coastal, warmer areas.

“Where we’re choosing to build and to live is the biggest driver in the increase in insurance cost.”

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

The National Flood Insurance Program, which provides most of the flood insurance to homeowners, is increasing rates at 18 percent per year to reflect the actual risk of flooding.

While this impacts everyone, it can be devastating to low-income people.

When a lender considers a higher insurance premium over the life of the loan, it could keep the would-be buyer from qualifying.

Even for longtime homeowners who have paid off their mortgage and seen decent appreciation of their value, spiraling insurance rates may force them to drop coverage they cannot afford.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

University of Pennsylvania Wharton Real Estate Professor Benjamin Keys has been studying the true cost of homeownership, including the expense of disasters and insurance to protect against them, for more than a decade.

Keys said when buyers are calculating their monthly payment, they must look at what insurance will cost a decade from the time of purchase.

In the past several years, rates have skyrocketed much more than the rate of inflation.

Part of that is because in the past year, there have been 27 disasters that did more than $1 billion in damage, so the insurance industry is reacting to those losses.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

The risk of disaster, especially flooding, is simply not being factored into the true cost of homeownership. University of Pennsylvania Wharton Real Estate Professor Benjamin Keys has been studying this for more than a decade.

He has concluded in a time of decreasing affordability, the cost of insuring against a catastrophic event can put one more squeeze on homebuyers.

Keys is updating a paper he authored that looks at flood-prone coastal properties and whether sales will slow because of staggering insurance hikes.

“A number of studies suggest that these risks are not the first thing that homebuyers consider.

There are a lot of reasons why homeowners are not aware of the risk or do not appreciate the risk.

In some states, sellers are not required to state prior flood damage or the flood risk to a property,” he said.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

LOTSAR recently held a rebuilding session addressing flood zones, natural habitat, affordable housing, and possible zoning changes that could allow more density with infill projects to accommodate hundreds of dwellings and businesses that were lost.

 LOTSAR will continue to be a convenor of these important discussions.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

LOTSAR is collaborating with a member that is an affordable housing developer and has designed 700-square-foot, temporary-housing cottages.

These relief cottages are currently in the process of getting funding and being placed.

Matthew Allen, J.D., is director of Professional Development and Government Affairs for the Land of the Sky Association of REALTORS® said LOTSAR, along with other stakeholders, was involved in discussions with the city of Asheville on updating their flood regulations and will similarly weigh in when Buncombe County’s regulations are updated.

He said local officials know some people will have difficulty rebuilding in flood prone areas and the community is working together on a good solution for all.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Matthew Allen, J.D., is director of Professional Development and Government Affairs for the Land of the Sky Association of REALTORS® (LOTSAR), which covers the Asheville area.

LOTSAR sprung into action for disaster recovery.

LOTSAR provided resources for rebuilding and applying for state and federal disaster assistance.

Allen noted that the National Association of REALTORS® and NC REALTORS® combined to contribute more than $1 million in recovery grant funding.

LOTSAR provided resources for rebuilding and applying for state and federal disaster assistance.

It also got heavily involved in presenting information on water testing—because for weeks after the disaster, city water was mostly undrinkable.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Asheville, N.C., often cited as one of the most livable cities in America, was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September 2024.

The Category 4 hurricane caused more than $50 billion in damage in the city of about 95,000. Asheville’s River Arts District was largely ruined.

Asheville is the county seat of Buncombe County—the hardest hit county in North Carolina, where 42 storm-related deaths were confirmed.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Neal Payton, FAIA, FCNU, leads the Los Angeles-based west coast office of Torti Gallas + Partners, an urban and architectural design firm.

Payton said it is difficult and cost prohibitive for individual property owners to seek rezoning, so more sweeping changes to the existing zoning is necessary for walkable and mixed-use neighborhood centers to emerge.

He said California has a somewhat unique tool to achieve this, called a Specific Plan, which allows a rezoning across multiple properties under disparate ownership.

This approach, used in California or exported to other disaster-struck parts of the country, could prevent bland, uniform, mega developments created by master developers brought in to spur rebuilding.

Payton said a revised Specific Plan can help restitch a community by allowing individual parcel owners to rebuild at slightly higher densities.

“By allowing such rebuilding, the city would provide these small-parcel owners the incentive to hold onto their land and rebuild, thus ensuring the kind of village texture that is such an important part of these neighborhoods, to remain,” he said.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Neal Payton, FAIA, FCNU, leads the Los Angeles-based west coast office of Torti Gallas + Partners, an urban and architectural design firm.

Payton said disaster rebuilding is an opportunity to create a pedestrian-friendly, mixed-use environment that can be served by transit.

This would better serve the 30 percent of people who do not drive.

“While land-ownership patterns and infrastructure tend to be fixed, zoning itself is mutable.

Because of the small increment of property ownership characterizing both Palisades Village and Altadena, rezoning would allow for a delightfully more robust mix of uses and a finer grain of development than might be found in large lot efforts that are more the norm in redevelopment,” he said.

EXPLORING RESILIENCY

AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN

Neal Payton, FAIA, FCNU, leads the Los Angeles-based west coast office of Torti Gallas + Partners, an urban and architectural design firm.

Payton said more resilient and equitable communities can rise from the ashes.

“As charming and beloved as the historic centers of Pacific Palisades and Altadena were, the opportunity to reconsider the single-use land-use pattern of both locales stares us in the face.

In the Palisades, some of the commercial space was organized in a car-centric pattern, with parking dominating the streetscape.

So, in the case of the Palisades, we might ask, why can’t the new construction be built to frame and embrace generously sized sidewalks and relegate parking to a less visible location?” he said.