All this talk about rebuilding causing an economic stimulus misses the big issue: people will be less willing to buy in fire areas (i.e., all of North County) after this horrendous fire. Some people may leave; people outside of San Diego may be reluctant to move here and buy a home.
Perhaps the best example of a “perfect storm” contributing to a real estate collapse is what happened in Los Angeles in the mid 1990s — when a major earthquake, massive fires, and a violent urban riot coalesced into a “perfect storm” that contributed to a real estate downturn. Many people just gave up on L.A. and left. Granted, some of the downturn was ecoomic (aerospace layoffs were a big factor), but it is widely konwn that natural/unnatural disasters played a role in L.A.’s real estate meltdown in the 1990s.
So, in San Diego, things could get worse before they get better. The drought, and the risk of more fires, is worsening.
