The Village is open. Why should Pacific Palisades property owners care?

As a local Pacific Palisades Realtor, I wanted to give my opinion on what's happening in the market. 

Does the Village reopening mean the Palisades has recovered?

Not on its own—but it’s not nothing, either. It’s the clearest sign yet that people want to be here, and wanting to be here is the thing that actually drives a housing recovery.

A rebuilt commercial center doesn’t put a roof back on a single house. What it does is tell you something about demand, and demand is the part of a housing recovery that’s hardest to fake.

What does it actually look like when you walk through the Village now?

I don’t have to guess at this one—I walk it most days because my office is right on the corner.

I go into Alfred’s and K’s Bakery, and there are people lined up. Not empty storefronts with a novelty crowd on opening weekend—actual lines on an ordinary day. Kids are playing on the grass.

And it’s not only locals. I see people specifically driving in to eat here, choosing the Palisades as the destination for a meal, not just passing through.

That’s a different signal than “the Village reopened.” That’s “the Village reopened, and it’s still popular.” Hope is easy to manufacture for a ribbon-cutting. A packed bakery on a random Tuesday, months later, is harder to fake.

Home Prices

When the Village first opened in September 2018, I feel it helped increase the value of Pacific Palisades homes.

I heard some longtime Palisadians complain because they felt it changed the landscape of the Village. Well, they certainly didn’t complain about their property value and equity going up.

In time, I feel the Village reopening and its popularity will also help Pacific Palisades home prices increase, particularly in the Alphabet Streets, where residents can walk to the Village.

This has already started happening with lot values in the Alphabets. There is so much building in this area, while supply in the Alphabets remains low. All of this has increased the value of lots here.

What do the new homes being built actually tell you about confidence?

This is the angle I think people miss. Look at the size of the homes going up around town right now.

People aren’t rebuilding small, cautious, get-me-back-to-even houses. They’re building substantial homes—the kind you build when you believe you’ll be living in this community for decades, not just replacing what you lost as quickly and cheaply as possible.

That’s a confidence signal, not just a construction statistic. Nobody puts that kind of money and time into a house if they don’t believe in the neighborhood around it.

Are older homeowners actually rebuilding, or mostly selling?

Many non-local Realtors were saying seniors would be selling their lots. I got so mad hearing this because I work with a lot of seniors over 90 years old and know them personally.

Most of the ones I know and work with are either rebuilding or still waiting to see. People assume it’s mainly younger families rebuilding and older owners cashing out and moving on. From what I’ve seen personally, that’s not the full picture.

I know homeowners in their 90s who are rebuilding right now. Not just staying and repairing—building.

That’s not a small decision at 90-plus. It’s a multi-year permitting and construction process, a bet that they’ll be here to enjoy the finished house, and a statement about where they want to spend whatever years they have left.

When someone that age chooses to rebuild instead of taking the insurance money and buying somewhere finished, that tells you something about how much this specific community means to people—across every generation, not just the one with a longer runway to wait it out.

So what would “fully back” actually require?

Here’s where I bring the hope back down to the ground because I think that’s part of my job.

The Village reopening is one very visible piece of a much longer rebuild. Most of the town is still mid-construction—foundations, framing, and houses at every different stage, sometimes on the same street.

Insurance is still a live conversation for a lot of homeowners, not a settled one. There are also practical gaps everyone here still feels—a grocery store in town is the one I hear about constantly.

“Back” isn’t a single day you’ll be able to point to. It’s going to be a lot of individual moments like the Village reopening, stacked on top of each other over the years, on different streets and at different speeds.

How does this connect to buying or selling right now?

If you’re deciding whether to buy, sell, or rebuild, the Village reopening is one input, not the whole answer.

It tells you that demand for this town is real and durable—which matters if you’re weighing whether to rebuild rather than sell a lot.

It doesn’t tell you what a specific standing home, new build, or lot is worth this month because those are genuinely different markets moving at different speeds.

What I’d actually say to you is that the Village reopening is real evidence that this recovery has momentum. Whether that momentum has already reached your specific street or your specific decision is a conversation—not a headline.

Have Questions About the Pacific Palisades Market?

If you’re weighing a decision here—buy, sell, rebuild, or wait—I’d rather walk you through what I’m actually seeing on the street than give you a generic answer.

Call me if you want information specific to your situation.