Why We’re Bullish on the Palisades Rebuild and How You Can Join Us

Welcome Back Everyone!

I have an exciting update and opportunity for you all this week. As you probably have noticed, I’ve had to dial down a bit on the content production in recent months. I’ve even missed a few weeks completely. Well, that’s because I have been hard at work getting a new business off the ground. 

I’m happy to share that Westward Homes is now fully operational. We have broken ground on 3 new homes in the Palisades and are actively in planning on another half dozen or so. We’re also helping a few clients with large scale high-end renovations around town. As someone who has made a living exclusively through investments for two decades, it feels oddly satisfying to actually have some clients and to be able to help people in this more direct service-oriented way.

As you all know, we started Westward Homes with the specific intent to build an impact business. The idea was to serve an urgent need—helping fire victims get back into their homes—and prove that this could be done both profitably and with integrity. To honor this intent, our clients are getting true market pricing, complete transparency, bespoke design, and world-class development expertise. And based on the feedback we’ve gotten so far, I couldn’t be more bullish about our future.

While spending so much time in the Palisades, we’ve also grown incredibly bullish about the investment opportunity there. This neighborhood is going to rebound way faster than people think but the uncertainty around it all is producing very interesting market conditions. There are tons of lots for sale (almost 200) and they are already trading down more than 50% from their pre-fire values. At the same time, every single adjacent single-family neighborhood is as strong as ever, despite a general housing market that is fundamentally broken.

Interestingly, the Palisades rebuild is one of those issues where there’s a ton of misinformation spreading online. Should we be surprised? Probably not. Mayor Bass is fighting for her political future and Palisades is ground zero for the case against her. I cannot tell you the number of people who think she’s been busy either making the rebuild process overly onerous or working to change the Palisades into some mecca for affordable housing. 

Nothing could be further from the truth!

Believe it or not, the city is actually following through on its promise to expedite the process. It’s only been taking us 45 days or so to get our plans approved (the stated goal is 30 days or less and the historical norm is 6 months plus). City staff across various departments have been unusually responsive and, dare I say, maybe even friendly! And lo and behold, there are already almost 300 homes in or approved for immediate construction. Interesting how that works, right?  

LADWP is still being as difficult as ever—for example, not being willing to waive the $1000 permit fee for a temporary power pole when every other city department is—but their ability to mess up the construction timeline for residential isn’t near as much of a problem as in multifamily and other commercial development. More on that someday! 

As for the affordable housing conspiracy, this is an absolute joke. The city, with the help of Governor Newsom, is going in the exact opposite direction: doing everything it can to make sure the Palisades ends up looking exactly as it did before. Whether in the expedite orders themselves, which highly incentivize rebuilding what was there before, or in the surprise suspension of SB9—a highly touted pro-housing measure that allowed for by-right density improvements to single family zoned lots—in fire affected areas, the government is bending over backwards to accommodate the desires of the historic Palisades community. 

To make a long story, short: what’s manifesting here is a unique opportunity to invest in one of the best single-family neighborhoods in the entire country and to do so with a conservative margin of safety and a compelling expected return profile. Given where lots are trading and what it’s costing us to build for our clients, we think we can build stunning homes and be all-in at cost far below historical Palisades and every adjacent sub-market.

I’d like to offer you all an opportunity to co-invest alongside us in the Palisades rebuild. We’ve already got two lots under contract and plan to buy a whole much more in the coming months. We’re working on opening this up more broadly but for now we can only take accredited investors and the minimum investment size is $50K.

If you are interested in learning more, please click the button below.