Inside Altadena’s Rebuilt Community Welcomes Homeowners One Year After the Eaton Fire
More than a year after the deadly Eaton fire ripped through Altadena, CA, the original homeowners are preparing to move into a new place to live as the area continues to recover from the devastation.
Construction on The Oak Grove of Altadena, a 16-home neighborhood north of the city, was completed in November 2024, two months before the wildfires hit the area.
By the time the fire was completely extinguished in late January 2025, seven new homes were in ruins, an eighth had been severely burned, and many others had suffered from smoke damage.
Rebecca AnbardanThe president of Warmington Residential, a California homebuilder that pioneered the subdivision, tells Realtor.com® that, at the time of the disaster, seven homeowners were already in and living in their new homes, and several neighboring homes were in escrow.
Those families found themselves among about 100,000 people displaced shortly after the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, which burned large areas of Altadena and Pacific Palisades, CA.
The twin fires killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 buildings—an estimated 12,000 of which were homes—including about 9,000 in the burned Eaton area.
Nine months after the disaster, 70% of families who lost their homes remain homeless, according to a survey conducted in October by the Ministry of Angels, a fire-rehabilitation organization.
So far, 1,669 building permits have been issued and 13 homes have been rebuilt in and around Altadena, according to the Los Angeles County permitting progress dashboard.
In Altadena’s Oak Grove, construction workers for properties leased by Warmington Residential—and paid for by homeowner’s insurance companies—have been busy since last August rebuilding their properties that were destroyed by fire.
Anbardan says that for his company, the rebuilding process went well for one simple reason: They had finished building the first houses just two months before the fire, so all they had to do was for the county to reissue the previously approved building permits.
“There was no need for us to go in and present building plans, plan, set up and secure,” he explained. “All of that was taken care of, because we were just going through it. So for us, it wasn’t a challenging process.”
Displaced families were even given the chance to make their new homes their own, choosing everything from updated flooring and paint colors to bathroom fixtures.
The houses are all being rebuilt at once, and the move-in date for the returning homeowners is scheduled for April. Anbardan says he expects it to be a healing time for the community.
When the developer launched sales in October, the first remodeled home was snapped up in just 15 minutes. Beyond the quick sale, Warmington’s model home has evolved into a local sanctuary.
“It was amazing to see how many people were just looking for a place,” Anbardan said. “Our model [home] it became kind of like a community lounge. And people would come in and drink coffee and sit and meet friends.”
Warmington will offer eight newly built homes for sale in this subdivision. The first two are already listed, including a four-bedroom, 2,653-square-foot home priced at $1,649,000, and a five-bedroom, 2,857-square-foot home priced at just over $1,699,000.
According to an analysis of real estate data from Realtor.com, the median list price in Altadena dropped 32% from December 2024, just before the fire, to December 2025, rising from $1.31 million to $1.73 million.
Realtor.com’s chief economist Joel Berner he says the strong price increase is being driven by large properties coming onto the market.
