More than a year after the deadly Eaton fire scorched through Altadena, CA, the first homeowners are getting ready to move into a new residential community as the area continues to recover from the devastation.
Construction on The Oak Grove of Altadena, a 16-home subdivision located on the north side of town, had wrapped up in November 2024, just two months before the wildfire overwhelmed the area.
By the time the flames were fully contained in late January 2025, seven of the brand-new homes lay in ruins, an eighth stood severely charred, and several others were scarred by smoke damage.
Rebecca Anbardan, president of Warmington Residential, the California homebuilder that developed the subdivision, tells Realtor.com® that, at the time of the disaster, seven homeowners had already moved in and were living in their new properties, and several neighboring homes were in escrow.
Those families found themselves among the roughly 100,000 people who were displaced in the immediate aftermath of the Eaton and Palisades wildfires, which incinerated large swaths of Altadena and Pacific Palisades, CA.
The twin blazes killed at least 31 people and destroyed more than 16,000 structures—an estimated 12,000 of them homes—including some 9,000 in the Eaton burn zone.
Nine months after the disaster, 70% of households that lost their homes remained displaced, according to a survey conducted in October by the Department of Angels, a fire recovery organization.
To date, 1,669 building permits have been issued and 13 homes have been rebuilt in and around Altadena, according to Los Angeles County’s permitting progress dashboard.
In The Oak Grove of Altadena, building crews hired by Warmington Residential—and paid for by homeowners’ insurance companies—have been busy since last August rebuilding their fire-ravaged properties.
Anbardan says that for her company, the reconstruction process has gone relatively smoothly for one simple reason: They had completed construction on the original homes just two months before the fires, so all they had to do was have the county reissue their previously approved building permits.
“We did not need to come in and present building plans, go through planning, building, and safety,” she explains. “All of that had already been handled, because we had just gone through it. So actually for us, it was not a challenging process.”
The displaced families were even given the chance to personalize their new homes, selecting everything from updated flooring and paint colors to bathroom fixtures.
The homes are all being rebuilt simultaneously, and move-in day for the returning homeowners has been set for April. Anbardan says she expects it to be a healing moment for the community.
When the developer launched sales in October, the first rebuilt home was snapped up in just 15 minutes. Beyond the rapid sale, Warmington’s model home evolved into a sanctuary for the neighborhood.
“It was amazing to see how many people just wanted a place to be,” says Anbardan. ”Our model [home] became kind of like the living room for the community. And people were coming in and drinking coffee and hanging out and meeting friends.”
Warmington will be offering eight newly built homes for sale in the subdivision. The first two have already been listed, including a four-bedroom, 2,653-square-foot house with a $1,649,000 asking price, and a five-bedroom, 2,857-square-foot property priced at just over $1,699,000.
According to housing data analysis from Realtor.com, the median list price in Altadena jumped 32% from December 2024, just before the fires, to December 2025, climbing from $1.31 million to $1.73 million.
Realtor.com senior economist Joel Berner says the sharp price increase has been driven by larger properties coming on the market.