Once debris from the Los Angeles County wildfires is cleared and rebuilding begins, attention will likely shift to the financial health of a small, but growing California fire insurance provider. The California FAIR Plan has an outsized share of the state’s riskiest policies because it is the insurer of last resort for home and building … Read more
“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market. Buzz: Los Angeles County house hunters face mortgage payments double from five years ago. Source: My trusty spreadsheet tracked this yardstick of affordability by looking at its 37-year history of CoreLogic homebuying stats through November and swings in the 30-year fixed mortgage rate from Freddie … Read more
Southern California homebuying will have suffered its second-worst year on record when the final tally for 2024 is done. My trusty spreadsheet reviewed 37 years of CoreLogic’s regional transaction data and found 160,585 closed sales of existing and new residences in 2024’s first 11 months. Going back to 1988, that’s the second-slowest sales pace in … Read more
By Eliyahu Kamisher, Laura Curtis and Kara Carlson | Bloomberg As the smoke clears from devastating Los Angeles wildfires, efforts to clean up the affected areas are being complicated by burnt-out electric and hybrid vehicles and home-battery storage systems. Lithium batteries from Tesla Inc., along with those from other carmakers, have added to the mix … Read more
Declan Durcan and his wife wept with relief when they got the call last Sunday telling them they could rent a three-bedroom house in Brentwood. It was a small but consequential bit of good news after a devastating, heart-rending week. Their Pacific Palisades home was transformed into rubble Jan. 7 when an inferno devoured their … Read more
“How expensive?” tracks measurements of California’s totally unaffordable housing market. The pain: Southern California tenants last year hunted for housing in some of the nation’s tightest apartment markets. The source: My trusty spreadsheet reviewed a year-end report by RentCafe on rental availability at big apartment complexes nationwide. The data tracked 139 U.S. markets, including six … Read more
A Lyft Inc. driver is seeking dismissal of all claims against him in a lawsuit brought by a passenger who alleges that she jumped out of a car window moments before her unconscious driver crashed into a parked vehicle, saying he suffered a diabetic emergency just before the crash and cannot be liable. Lal Finci’s … Read more
If you plan ahead, you can save as $50 per visit on your outdoor adventures this year. Here are the dates that every national park in the country will be free to visit in 2025. You don’t need a pass, but a few do require advance reservations. (See below) Jan. 20: Martin Luther King Jr. … Read more
Firefighters from an Oregon strike team survey damage at a Sunset Blvd. home leveled by the Palisades Fire in the Pacific Palisades community of Los Angeles on Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025, (AP Photo/Noah Berger) An overhead pole camera image shows wildfire damage at the Altadena Community Church destroyed by the Eaton Fire in Altadena, California, … Read more
As residents grapple with the enormity of homes and businesses lost, the economic impact of the devastating Palisades and Eaton fires grows larger by the day. AccuWeather’s estimate of property and business losses reached $135 billion to $150 billion by Friday, 10 times greater than the deadly Maui file in 2023. Lives are in disarray. … Read more
