Pacific Palisades Rebuild Status September 2026

Almost everything written about the Palisades rebuild is either too optimistic or too bleak, and both versions get repeated until they feel like facts. So I went to the source. Every figure below comes from the City of Los Angeles, City of Malibu and Los Angeles County rebuild dashboards, read on September 8, 2026.

One caution before the numbers, because it is the single most common error I see: three different jurisdictions burned in the same fire and each publishes its own counts. The City of Los Angeles covers Pacific Palisades proper. Malibu runs its own portal. LA County covers unincorporated areas like Topanga and Sunset Mesa. Altadena is a different fire entirely. When someone quotes you a rebuild statistic, the first question is which set it came from.

The one number that matters most

Homes are being permitted far faster than they are being built.

In Pacific Palisades, roughly 1,200 addresses now hold an issued permit for a new home. About 45 have received a certificate of occupancy.

In Malibu, 92 building permits have been issued for Palisades Fire rebuilds, and zero certificates of occupancy. Not a small number. Zero.

That gap is the real state of the rebuild, and it is why the neighborhood can feel simultaneously busy and empty. Plenty of paperwork has cleared. Comparatively few families have moved home.

Pacific Palisades, in full

From the City's dashboard, which draws hourly from LADBS:

Read that permit number carefully. The 4,466 figure counts all permit types, including electrical, grading, sprinkler and pool. It is not 4,466 homes. Filtering to new single-family and duplex permits specifically gives 1,309 issued across 1,200 distinct addresses, out of 2,031 new-home applications.

For scale: the fire destroyed 4,701 parcels inside the City of LA, of which 3,984 were single-residence. So roughly 30% of destroyed homes now have an issued rebuild permit, and around 1% are finished.

Completions are accelerating, slowly. Certificates of occupancy by month: one in December 2025, one in January, three in February, three in March, five in April, five in May, nine in June, eight in July, nine in August.

Malibu, kept separate

Malibu had 623 destroyed parcels, 544 of them single-residence, so about 17% have an issued rebuild permit, meaningfully behind the Palisades. One detail worth knowing if you are buying there: of the rebuild applications, 236 took the like-for-like plus 10% path and exactly one filed a full Coastal Development Permit. Effectively everyone is using the streamlined route, and that route has limits on what you can change.

Why permits take as long as they do, and who is actually holding the clock

The Mayor's emergency order set a target of 30-day reviews. Here is the reality for new Palisades homes, measured from application to permit issuance:

That is roughly five times the target, and it has been getting slower, not faster, through 2026.

But the obvious conclusion is the wrong one. LA County publishes a breakdown the City does not, and it is revealing. For its unincorporated Palisades area, the average rebuild takes 182 business days to permit, of which 33 business days sit with the reviewer and 149 sit with the applicant.

Roughly four fifths of the wait is on the owner's side of the table: the design team, the soils report, the insurance settlement, the financing. I say this to clients constantly and it is rarely what they expect to hear. If your rebuild is stalled, the highest-leverage thing you can do is usually not to chase the City. It is to find which of your own pieces is missing.

One more signal worth watching: new-home permit issuance fell to 63 in August 2026, the weakest full month since July 2025, against 117 in March. One month is not a trend. Two would be.

Debris is done

This one is unambiguously good news. The City reports 99.9% of debris removed and 100% of the government-led program complete, with three parcels outstanding: the Palisades Bowl, 556 Via De La Paz and 1601 San Onofre. The Army Corps finished its final Palisades property on August 26, 2025, having cleared 4,010 properties and over a million tons.

If you see the figure of 9,500 properties and 2.6 million tons, that is Palisades plus Eaton combined. It is not a Palisades number.

The utility problem nobody warns buyers about

This is the item I most often find missing from a client's plan, and it has moved from background detail to genuine closing risk.

Every Palisades rebuild must pre-install LADWP infrastructure to spec: a combination overhead and underground service panel rated to a maximum of 400 amps, plus one three-inch PVC conduit running from the panel to the front property line, no longer than 120 feet, direct-buried under driveable surfaces. There is a required pre-construction meeting and staged inspections, and power is only released after both LADBS and LADWP sign off.

The undergrounding programme itself runs long: up to 45 miles of overhead line converted where feasible, the Alphabet Streets first in Q1 2027, and overall completion projected for 2031.

And it is causing live delays right now. On September 4, 2026, ABC7 reported Palisades rebuilders held up on permanent power activation over trench and conduit specification disputes, with one resident's required trench depth changed mid-project.

If you are buying a lot, or buying a nearly finished rebuild, ask where the property sits in the LADWP process. A house can be built and still not have power.

What it costs, and why I will not give you a current number

I would rather tell you the honest thing than a confident one.

The widely quoted $800 per square foot comes from a survey of homeowner expectations fielded in March and April 2025. It is what owners thought it would cost, not what builders charged. In the same reporting, an upscale custom builder said he had no client being charged more than $550 to $600 per square foot.

There is no verified 2026 cost-per-square-foot figure. Anyone quoting one with confidence is quoting 2025 or quoting nothing. Get bids on your actual lot and your actual plans.

Also remember that Measure ULA still applies here, because the Palisades is in the City of LA: 4% from $5.3M and 5.5% above $10.6M. It does not apply in Altadena or Pasadena, which is why comparisons across those markets mislead.

Insurance is the live story

Around 70% of Palisades Fire victims report being under-insured or uninsured. The CA FAIR Plan took roughly 3,469 Palisades claims and levied a $1 billion member assessment in February 2025, its first in over thirty years. It covers approximately 40% of homes in parts of the Palisades.

State Farm is where 2026 has been most active. A 17% emergency rate increase took effect in June 2025. A March 2026 settlement held that 17% in place, where the company had sought 30%, cut condo and rental-dwelling rates with refunds, and committed the carrier to halting new-policy cancellations through the end of 2026. Then in May 2026 the Department of Insurance filed a formal Accusation against State Farm over its handling of roughly 11,300 wildfire claims, a 220-claim sample finding 398 violations across 114 claims.

If you are still in a claim, that last item is worth reading about. My Westside home insurance and FAIR Plan guide covers the mechanics.

The lot market, honestly dated

The freshest complete dataset is from late 2025. There is no published median lot price for either market covering summer 2026, and I am not going to invent one.

For the three months ending November 30, 2025:

On values, the honest answer is that the discount depends entirely on when you measure. The same local analyst tracked it at 10 to 25% below pre-fire at the eight-week mark, 45 to 50% below by summer 2025, levelling off through that autumn, and by July 2026 described values as stabilised with the gap narrowing "in many cases, to approximately 15% to 20%." A claim that lots are down some percentage, with no date attached, tells you nothing.

For standing homes, mid-2026 reporting put the Palisades at roughly 6.5 months of inventory, selling at about 91% of original list price, with the overwhelming majority of buyers being end users rather than speculators.

One myth to retire: the figure suggesting about half of Palisades lot buyers are investors is Palisades and Altadena combined. Palisades alone was 40.3% as of late 2025.

On bulk buying, the only confirmed large aggregator is Zuru Tech, at $111 million across 16 burned Malibu lots. Nothing comparable is verifiable in the Palisades, and every confirmed Caruso post-fire purchase here has been commercial property near Palisades Village, not residential lots. Clients ask me about this constantly and the rumour is bigger than the evidence.

What I would tell you if you called me today

If you own a lot: the permit path is workable and the bottleneck is probably on your side of the table. Get your design team, soils report and insurance position resolved in parallel, not in sequence, and start the LADWP conversation earlier than feels necessary.

If you are buying a lot: price it off the specific parcel, not off a headline percentage, and diligence the utility position as seriously as the soil.

If you are selling: 107 lots traded in three months at a $1.6M median in late 2025, and standing homes are moving at around 91% of list. There is a real market. It rewards accurate pricing and punishes anchoring to 2024.

For the mechanics of actually rebuilding, read my guide to rebuilding in Pacific Palisades alongside this. If you are weighing a sale instead, see selling a home in Pacific Palisades after the fire. And for the neighborhood's commercial recovery, Palisades Village reopened in August.

Let's talk

Numbers like these are only useful applied to a specific parcel, a specific insurance position and a specific timeline. That is the conversation I have with clients every week.

Reach out to me or call 310.595.5181. I'm a Compass Broker Associate with Antola Coastal Group, RealTrends Verified in the top 1.5% nationally, and a fifth-generation Angeleno working this coastline since 2007.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many homes have been rebuilt in Pacific Palisades so far?

As of September 8, 2026, about 45 addresses have received a certificate of occupancy, out of 3,984 destroyed single-residence parcels in the City of LA. Roughly 1,200 addresses hold an issued permit for a new home. Completions have been running at eight or nine a month through mid-2026.

How long does a Palisades rebuild permit take in 2026?

For new homes permitted in August 2026, the average from application to issuance was about 152 days, against a 30-day target. LA County's parallel data shows that in its unincorporated Palisades area, only 33 of 182 business days sit with the reviewer; 149 sit with the applicant.

Has debris removal in the Palisades finished?

Yes. The City reports 99.9% of debris removed and the government-led programme 100% complete, with three parcels outstanding. The Army Corps finished its final Palisades property on August 26, 2025, after clearing 4,010 properties and more than a million tons.

How much does it cost to rebuild in Pacific Palisades?

There is no verified 2026 figure. The widely quoted $800 per square foot is a homeowner expectation surveyed in early 2025, and a custom builder interviewed at the same time said no client was being charged more than $550 to $600. Get bids on your specific lot and plans.

What are Palisades lots selling for now?

The most recent complete data covers the three months ending November 30, 2025: 107 vacant lots sold at a $1.6M median. No published median exists for summer 2026. On values, local analysis put lots 45 to 50% below pre-fire in summer 2025, narrowing to roughly 15 to 20% by July 2026.

Why is Malibu behind Pacific Palisades on rebuilding?

Malibu has issued 92 building permits against 544 destroyed single residences, about 17%, versus roughly 30% in the Palisades, and has recorded zero certificates of occupancy for Palisades Fire rebuilds. It is a separate jurisdiction with its own permitting process and coastal requirements.

What utility work does a Palisades rebuild require?

Every rebuild must pre-install an LADWP combination service panel rated to 400 amps maximum plus a three-inch conduit to the front property line, no more than 120 feet, with a pre-construction meeting and staged inspections. Power is released only after both LADBS and LADWP final approvals. Undergrounding across the area runs to 2031.