Following the destructive LA wildfires, most residents haven’t considered moving: poll

LOS ANGELES - Despite the stress and hopelessness residents felt after communities, particularly Altadena and Pacific Palisades, were left destroyed following the relentless wildfires in Los Angeles County earlier this year, a poll revealed most have not considered moving following the traumatic events. 

However, about a quarter of those surveyed said they have considered leaving the LA area. 

The poll was conducted by the UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies and was co-sponsored by the LA Times. 

LA residents don't want to lose the SoCal lifestyle, poll reveals 

What they're saying:

While the events of Jan. 2025 left residents devastated, those surveyed said it did not deter their desire to live in the LA area. 

"I think LA residents do like the LA lifestyle; 71% actually like their neighborhood, they're satisfied with their neighborhood. Even though you saw that over 20% say that they were considering moving, when we asked them, how seriously were you considering? Just 9% said they were giving serious consideration to moving. So, I think all in all, for people who are affected [there were] certainly higher levels of consideration to move. But for those for the majority of residents, they still like living in LA," said IGS Poll Director Mark DiCamillo. 

By the numbers:

The poll does reflect that the numbers were different for those who were personally impacted by the Eaton and Palisades fires. In fact, 42% of Eaton Fire victims and 41% of Palisades Fire victims said they have considered living elsewhere. 

However, researchers found fewer fire victims have seriously considered moving and most said they want to rebuild in LA. 

"When you see that in any poll where people are being directly affected by some really negative occurrence, but again, even in those two areas, it's only 15 or 16% saying that they're giving serious consideration to moving," DiCamillo explained. 

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"They mostly would like to rebuild. And it's just a matter of time. And whether the period of time it takes to get to their new place. So, it's really up to the residents. But I think those in the Eaton and Palisades areas, they really actually had higher ratings of LA as a place to live than most other county residents. It's just that they were the unfortunate bearers of this terrible fire," he added. 

The poll also took into account that circumstances are different for everyone and more parents considered leaving after the fires. Overall, 32% of parents considered relocating compared to 20% of non-parents.

"I think it has to do with the fact that they were also reporting higher levels of stress. They also reported that they thought their family members were somewhat harmed by the smoke. So there's greater health considerations by the women and most of them are parents as well. So I think that's really the responsibility factor. They're thinking of other people in their household and they're worried about the health effects," he said. 

Also, many residents have faith the city will rebuild after everything the city has endured through the years. 

"A majority of LA residents countywide are confident that the county will recover [and] get back on its feet," DiCamillo said. "If they have less confidence, they're more likely to say, yeah, maybe I should move, because this place isn't going to get any better. But most of the people think it will. And that's why the majority are not considering moving. And they're looking, you know, that the LA will recover like it's recovered in the past when it's had other tragedies."

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