Builders launch portal to make fire rebuilds faster and more affordable

This is read by an automated voice.Please report any issues or inconsistencies here.

People who lost homes in the Palisades and Eaton fires can now go online to pick vetted residential templates that could save them money and be ready as early as next year.Builders Alliance, a nonprofit organization formed in response to the fires, on Friday launched a portal that offers survivors a selection of homes, filtered by lot size, price range and other preferences.“We’re trying to create an ‘easy’ button for homeowners,” said Lew Horne, the chairman of Project Recovery, a group of academics and real estate industry experts who had created a road map for recovery.

Project Recovery’s March report — which was compiled by professors in the real estate graduate schools at USC and UCLA, along with the Los Angeles chapter of the Urban Land Institute, a real estate nonprofit education and research institute — said an alliance of builders could work together for economies of scale to speed up reconstruction and make it more affordable and predictable.The web portal is the latest stop on the report’s road map.

It makes it easy for those who lost their homes to pick templates and receive competing bids from builders who have been vetted by Project Recovery.“We’re keeping a close eye” on the builders, Horne said.

“Buyers are going to have a quality home at a quality price in a time frame they can count on.”Horne is head of the Los Angeles chapter of the Urban Land Institute and president of real estate brokerage CBRE for Southern California.Other leaders of Project Recovery include Stuart Gabriel, director of the UCLA Ziman Center for Real Estate, and Richard Green, director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate.

Business A prominent group of academics and real estate industry experts has crafted a far-reaching plan to hasten the recovery of Los Angeles County neighborhoods devastated by the January wildfires.Homeowners using the portal can match th...