Opinion: Malibu is still paradise. Now we need leaders who will fight to bring it back
By Opinion Column · Sat Aug 22 2026
By Scott Dittrich and Lea Johnson, Malibu Rebuild Task Force
A few weeks ago, at our church home group, someone mentioned that a friend was looking for a place to rent. Since we have four Realtors in our group, the conversation quickly turned to Malibu real estate.
It is not pretty.
A recent MLS analysis of properties within Malibu found 276 single-family homes actively for sale, but only 20 pending or under contract — nearly 14 homes sitting on the market for every one currently moving toward a sale.
The beachfront market is even more striking. Sixty-six beachfront homes are listed, but only three are pending or under contract. Just 16 sold during the first seven months of 2026. At that pace, it would take more than two years to sell today’s beachfront inventory even if not one more home came onto the market.
And perhaps the saddest statistic: 31 burned-out beachfront lots are for sale. Only one is pending and one under contract, while just five sold during the first seven months of the year. At that pace, it would take more than three years to absorb today’s inventory.
These are not just real-estate statistics.
Behind many of those burned lots is a Malibu family confronting an agonizing decision: Do we endure the cost, insurance shortfall, and uncertainty of rebuilding — or do we give up and leave?
Malibu did not suddenly stop being one of the most beautiful places in the world. We still have the Pacific, the mountains, extraordinary weather, and a community fiercely committed to protecting this place.
What we are losing is confidence — confidence that people can afford to live here, insure a home here, rebuild here andstay here.
So rather than spend another year arguing about everything that went wrong, we should be asking a more important question:
What are our elected officials — and everyone asking to represent us — going to do to bring Malibu back?
We should remember enough history to learn from it.
Under Mayor Doug Stewart, fire victims waited until Jan. 25 — 18 days after the Palisades Fire — for the first city town hall where many could publicly share their losses and frustrations. At the same time, Malibu’s city manager had been on leave since after Thanksgiving 2024 and never returned to his duties.
To its credit, the city created the Rebuild Center quickly. But opening a Rebuild Center did not automatically create a streamlined rebuilding process.
A regulatory system designed to scrutinize new development was still being applied to families simply trying to replace homes that had burned down. Malibu did not issue its first Palisades Fire rebuild building permit until Aug. 27 — more than seven months after the fire.
The Malibu Rebuild Task Force pushed for fee waivers, streamlining, and a fire rebuild ambassador. Abe Roy became an important bridge between homeowners and City Hall, only to see his position end under Mayor Marianne Riggins without first being reviewed by the full council. Abe resigned publicly.
It was an embarrassing episode, but something constructive followed.
MRTF and the Rebuild Zone Captains began meeting regularly with city staff, working through actual homeowner cases, and asking a simple question: What is holding this family up, and how do we keep it from happening to the next one? We quickly went from two rebuild permits to 30, 40, and now 90 issued.
That collaboration is working.
That is the model Malibu needs now: less bureaucracy, more collaboration, greater urgency, and measurable results.
And it should be the test for everyone asking for our votes.
We do not need candidates simply telling us how much they love Malibu.
Everybody loves Malibu.
We need to know what they are prepared to fight for.
First, get our neighbors home.
We still have much work to do as hundreds of homes and other structures were destroyed in the Palisades Fire. We already know where painfully slow rebuilding leads: Six years after Woolsey, the c
ity reported only 174 of 465 destroyed single-family homes had been completed.
Every City Council candidate should be asked: What specifically will you do to make like-for-like rebuilding faster, less expensive, and more predictable?
Second, make disaster rebuilding affordable.
Our representatives in Sacramento should fight for a meaningful sales-tax exemption or refund on building materials and contents purchased to replace for disaster-destroyed homes.
A family rebuilding the same home it already paid taxes to build and fill once should not have to pay tens of thousands more in sales tax simply because its home burned down.
Third, underground our electric and telecommunications infrastructure.
The photographs from Big Rock Drive and PCH after the fire show why this is not simply about aesthetics or avoiding power outages.
When overhead electric and telecom poles fall, their wires can come down across our roads and physically blockevacuation routes and emergency access.
That happened during the Palisades Fire. Downed poles and wires made streets inaccessible and impeded emergency response. Big Rock and Las Flores residents experienced what that can mean when firefighters cannot reach homes that desperately need protection.
A fire engine cannot protect your neighborhood if it cannot get into your neighborhood.
When trenches are opened to underground electrical lines, our local and state representatives should fight to underground vulnerable telecommunications lines at the same time wherever feasible.
This is public-safety infrastructure. Our power, communications and access routes all need to survive the next disaster better than they survived the last one.
Fourth, fix the insurance crisis.
Many survivors discovered that being insured did not mean being adequately covered. Construction costs far exceeded policy limits. Prospective buyers now confront an equally basic question: Can I insure a Malibu home at all, and can I afford the premium if I can?
No Malibu recovery will succeed unless California creates a functioning insurance market for high-fire-risk communities.
Fifth, treat wildfire prevention as essential infrastructure.
Brush clearance. Defensible space. Prescribed burning and goat grazing where appropriate. Firebreaks. Stronger water supplies. Independent firefighting water. Underground utilities. Home hardening.
And every existing Malibu home should be inspected for ignition vulnerabilities — roofs, vents, eaves, decks, fencing, vegetation, and other conditions that can allow wind-driven embers to ignite a structure. We should help homeowners identify and correct those risks before the next fire, not after it.
These cannot be ideas government rediscovers after another neighborhood burns.
Every level of government should have one overriding goal: make it harder for the next wildfire to become another Palisades Fire.
And finally, fight for Malibu in Sacramento.
We recently saw what that can accomplish when MRTF raised concerns about State Sen. Ben Allen’s SB 1229 and its potential effect on the value of disaster-destroyed properties. llen listened, and the measure will not move forward this year.
That is how representation is supposed to work.
We should expect that same commitment from whoever represents Malibu next — whether the issue is disaster-rebuild relief, insurance, undergrounding, or wildfire safety.
These are not partisan issues.
They are survival issues for Malibu.
The real-estate market is telling us something. We must restore confidence that families can rebuild, homeowners can insure what they own, emergency infrastructure will function when it matters and choosing Malibu does not mean signing up for years of unnecessary battles with government.
For us, this is personal.
After 18 months, Sharon and I are finally back in our home.
We are still dealing with possessions, landscaping, contractors, repairs, and insurance. We exhausted our available insurance coverage for outside structures and discovered that coverage we expected would help pay for our deck did not apply as we had understood.
We are approximately $250,000 underinsured.
For 18 months, there has hardly been a day without something involving insurance, attorneys, contractors, furniture, appliances, utilities, or repairs.
People talk about rebuilding as though it means rebuilding a house.
It does not.
It means rebuilding a life.
The emotional toll, especially on older residents, cannot be underestimated. Even those whose homes were not completelydestroyed have spent month after month dealing with claims, repairs, paperwork, contractors, and uncertainty.
One neighbor summed it up in four words:
“I now feel old.”
That is what our leaders need to understand.
Malibu does not need another decade of studying why disaster recovery is so difficult. We know what stands between recovery and retreat.
The challenge now is not identifying the problems. It is delivering results.
We need leaders at City Hall and in Sacramento willing to remove the barriers that are keeping families from rebuilding, returning, and believing in Malibu’s future.
Malibu is still paradise.
The question now is whether we will make it possible for our neighbors to come home — and choose to stay.