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Middle-Class Dream Goes Up in Flames
The Wall Street Journal|January 14, 2025
Sylvia Sweeney and her husband, Bob Honeychurch, bought their three-bedroom home nestled in the foothills of the San Gabriel Valley for $780,000 in 2009
- Rebecca Picciotto, Nicole Friedman and Dan Frosch
Middle-Class Dream Goes Up in Flames

At the start of this year, it was worth more than double that$1.6 million, by one estimate.

On Wednesday, raging wildfires swept through their Altadena neighborhood. When the couple went back later that day to see what was left of their home, all that was standing was the mailbox.

Sweeney, a 69-year old retired clergywoman, estimates that her home made up roughly 80% of the family's overall wealth.

"It was our beautiful dream home," she said. "It was our primary wealth."

Towering flames powered by hurricane-force winds have destroyed or damaged more than 12,000 structures in Los Angeles County, razing some of the city's priciest real estate on streets thick with celebrity mansions.

The fires also wiped out the homes of Californians in the middle class who bought into affluent neighborhoods decades ago, when the properties were still within reach for teachers, plumbers, and nurses.

After years of rising home values, many of them have the bulk of their wealth tied up in homes that are now ash.

"It was our retirement. It was our investment. It was our equity. It was everything," said John Kastanas, a 63-year old who works in an administrative role at the California Institute of Technology, of his historic home that burned in Altadena.

Now, those middle-class homeowners face a crushing housing crunch. Los Angeles was already experiencing an acute shortage of homes. Its real-estate prices are more than double the national level.

In the wake of the fire, thousands of people desperate for temporary housing are flooding a cutthroat rental market, where bidding wars are breaking out for leases. Some are considering leaving for good.

Then there is perhaps the most daunting prospect of all for those who have lost their homes: battling with their insurance companies to rebuild.

Denne historien er fra January 14, 2025-utgaven av The Wall Street Journal.

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Denne historien er fra January 14, 2025-utgaven av The Wall Street Journal.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

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