So how did we get to this point?
Did a lot of homeowners sell their properties to developers? Did they decide not to rebuild? Was their insurance coverage inadequate? So they couldn’t rebuild as it was before? So they decided to sell it?
Great questions.
Probably had inadequate coverage and didn’t have the money to rebuild. Takes too much time, money, and effort to rebuild. They took the easy way out.
The answers to all these questions would of course be Yes.
In the world we THOUGHT we lived in, our homeowners insurance would adequately cover reconstruction, and there would not be an artificially created market for sale of the properties to ‘developers’ of grotesque, high density ‘housing’ that is destroying just about every community in California. Further, the processes by which one would go about securing a permit to rebuild would not be so wildly byzantine. The state laws regarding ‘affordable housing’ were never actually intended to help people, save for a few who found a way to make obscene amounts of money with the slobbering help of compromised politicians and bureaucrats (and our tax dollars, which are used to underwrite financing costs). I’ve worked in the belly of the beast in both the private and public sectors for over 40 years, and know most of what I talk about on this subject. It’s a huge scam, from top to bottom.
....YOU MEAN “decided” after being stonewalled on rebuilding for over a year with mortgage payments still due... MAYBE that had something to do with having to sell to even survive and save a slice of equity after having to clear and clean up post fire or be fined by that “efficient” govt bagman.... ymmv
I think so. Many have sold their charred land—too expensive do environmental remediation, permits to rebuild, etc. Easier to sell and developers swoop in and take advantage of carefully crafted to their benefit local zoning laws.