 | Daily Real Estate News | October 26, 2007 |
Real Estate Community Grapples With Wildfires
About 15 houses normally sit on picturesque Winding Way in the mountain resort area of Lake Arrowhead, about 80 miles west of Los Angeles. But the wildfire that has ravaged so much of Southern California turned three of them to ash on Monday.
One of the destroyed houses belonged to Betty Katzman, CEO of Rim O' The World Association of REALTORSŪ.
Sadly, this isn’t her first loss. Katzman rebuilt after a 1992 house fire destroyed the home she had lived in since 1977. And despite losing her latest home to one of 14 fires that ran wild between San Diego and Malibu this week, Katzman said she would rebuild.
“The fire was hit-and-miss, but my house was one that didn’t make it,” Katzman says.
Still, with three confirmed deaths and dozens injured, Katzman believes she’s lucky. She knows that many home owners and REALTORSŪ living in the area had it much worse.
According to the Joint Information Center for the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services on Thursday, 1,588 structures have burned in the wildfires. Roughly 300 of those structures were in the Lake Arrowhead area.
“I know 10 people who have lost homes, and I’ll know even more because it’s not over yet. The fires are still burning,” says Katzman, who has taken refuge in an RV with her husband, Al, and her two dogs and one cat.
“You have to have a positive attitude. If you have that, you can get through anything,” she says.
Katzman’s sentiment is echoed by other Southern California REALTORŪ associations and leaders.
“We will work through this,” says California Association of REALTORSŪ President Colleen Badagliacco, CRB, CRSŪ, a partner with RE/MAX Valley Properties in San Jose. “The real estate community is a strong one. We will pull together and help our members to get back on their feet.”
NAR Donates $500,000
The NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORSŪ on Thursday announced it is donating $500,000 to the REALTORSŪ Relief Foundation to help victims of the of the disastrous fires.
“The California association also will be putting money into that fund and soliciting donations from our members,” Badagliacco says.
The Santa Ana winds that were largely responsible for the quick spread of the fires are now dying down, according to the National Weather Service, but it will take weeks for the real estate community to take stock of what has been lost.
The San Diego area has been especially hard hit. As of Thursday, more than 500,000 people have been evacuated from their homes. A whopping 1,042 homes are confirmed to be destroyed, according to the San Diego Board of Supervisors Chief of Staff Darren Pudgil, and that number could rise to 1,500.
“By next week, I anticipate that we’ll have better idea of the number because people will have returned if they can,” says Lisa T. Lem, director of communications for the San Diego Association of REALTORSŪ.
Of the 13 REALTORSŪ on the San Diego association’s communications committee, three have been displaced by the fires.
Close Call for San Diego REALTORŪ
The fires came within 1.5 miles of the Carmel Valley home of San Diego association president David Cabot, broker and executive vice president with Prudential California Realty in San Diego.
“We had four reverse 9-1-1 calls telling us to evacuate,” Cabot says. “By the third call, we were pretty sure they meant it.”
He evacuated his neighborhood on Monday and returned Wednesday, thankful to see his home still standing. He knows seven people who lost their homes. To help vicitms, the San Diego association has compiled a temporary housing list and is supporting the REALTORSŪ Relief Foundation, which will distribute funds to people in need.
The San Diego association also is providing resources on its Web site, including a information on rental forms, home insurance, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and the Red Cross.
The wildfires destroyed more homes in a larger area than the blazes in 2003, which also shook the San Diego area.
“In first weeks after that fire, we had a lack of adequate housing. But as soon as the community realized they need to provide more homes, investors made houses available and people with second homes in the area made those available. It didn’t take too long for the market to answer demand,” Cabot said.
He's optimistic that the same will hold true this time around. In the meantime, buyers, sellers, and practitioners will need a dose of post-fire patience.
“Everything that was in escrow will have to have another drive-by appraisal and will have to go through the insurance process again. So all of that is on hold in San Diego County right now. And short term, that’s the biggest challenge for [consumers and sales professionals],” Cabot said.
If there could be a silver lining to such a disaster, it’s that all of the rebuilding will bolster the construction industry, Cabot says.
“The Southern California economy is a stable and growing. We have lost a number of jobs in the construction industry in the last year,” he added, “and certainly some of those jobs will come back as the rebuilding occurs.”
— By Michelle Hofmann for REALTORŪ Magazine Online
How You Can Help
Contributions to the REALTORSŪ Relief Foundation can be made online through NAR’s secure eCommerce Web site at www.REALTOR.org/relief. Contributions are tax deductible.
To make a contribution by mail, make checks payable to the REALTORSŪ Relief Foundation and send to: REALTORSŪ Relief Foundation, Attn: NAR Finance Division, 430 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611.
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