Again in 2017, Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt planted roots in one in all LA’s most unique neighborhoods: the Pacific Palisades. The couple paid $2.52 million for a modest however scenic three-bedroom residence perched above the Santa Monica Mountains. Over the following a number of years, they raised two sons there, launched companies, and plotted a second act in leisure.
Tragically, in January 2025, their residence was destroyed within the huge California wildfires that swept by means of the realm. Within the lead-up to the house’s destruction, Montag and Pratt posted haunting footage to TikTok displaying the blaze creeping towards their residence. Hours later, their safety cameras captured the flames engulfing every part they owned.
Montag and Pratt have been amongst dozens of high-profile residents in Pacific Palisades and Malibu who misplaced their properties within the fireplace. Others affected embrace Paris Hilton, Adam Brody, Billy Crystal, Miles Teller, and Anna Faris.
Sadly, not like a number of the better-financed celeb fireplace victims, in a Could 2025 interview with The Independent, Heidi claimed that they can not afford to rebuild.
“They’re saying it may value $5 million to rebuild the home that value a 3rd of that. We simply haven’t got the funds.“
(Picture by Mindy Small/FilmMagic)
Price To Rebuild
Heidi and Spencer’s residence spanned just below 2,300 sq. ft and had beforehand been valued at $3.8 million.
Earlier than the fireplace, a common components for calculating the price to construct or rebuild a house in an upscale California neighborhood just like the Palisades was $1,000 per sq. foot. For a 2,300 sq. foot residence, that may have equated to $2.3 million. Earlier than the fireplace, if somebody needed to construct a particularly high-end residence, one MIGHT have used $1,500 per sq. foot. That may have equated to $3.45 million to rebuild, and that may have meant you’re utilizing extraordinarily costly marble, customized millwork, imported fixtures, luxurious home equipment, and top-tier architectural finishes all through.
If it is actually going to value Heidi and Spencer $5 million to rebuild, that equates to an astonishing $2,173 per sq. foot.
Based on Montag, the elevated value is the results of skyrocketing building costs, provide chain points, labor shortages, and allowing delays, components which have made rebuilding in post-fire zones almost unattainable for anybody with out deep monetary reserves.
What About Insurance coverage?
In a number of interviews within the days following the fireplace, Spencer indicated that he and Heidi had been dropped by their personal insurance coverage firm simply 4 months earlier than the blaze. I feel what he meant to say was that that they had been dropped by their personal insurance coverage firm. For instance, State Farm or Farmers.
As a result of that they had a mortgage, it could have been unattainable for Heidi and Spencer to function with none insurance coverage in any respect. Banks that maintain mortgages require that you simply preserve steady insurance coverage protection as a situation of their mortgage. When personal insurance coverage is canceled or lapses, the lender sometimes steps in to buy force-placed insurance coverage or requires the borrower to enroll in California’s last-resort fireplace protection generally known as the California FAIR Plan.
And because it seems, according to a new interview with Spencer in the New York Times, they did certainly have a FAIR Plan coverage which paid out round $1 million.
Sadly, even when the value per sq. foot to rebuild was $1,000, which it most definitely will not be, their payout continues to be $1.3 million shy of what it could take to rebuild their former residence. It is $4 million shy of what they have been quoted.
This hole leaves individuals in an unattainable place. Heidi and Spencer nearly definitely can be finest off promoting the land and utilizing that cash, plus the insurance coverage cash, to purchase a house elsewhere.
And who is aware of what the land is even price now… Think about this: For example it actually would value $5 million to construct a 2,300 sq. foot residence. If somebody got here in and acquired the lot for $1 million, after spending $5 million to rebuild, they might be all-in for $6 million. For a house that was beforehand estimated to be price just a little beneath $4 million. The mathematics is hard. And on this state of affairs, the place in California may Heidi and Spencer discover a home for $2 million right now that resembles their former way of life?
Oh! And to make it worse, they’re nonetheless on the hook for the continued mortgage prices! Once you put all of it collectively, it is actually a no-win scenario: rebuild at a staggering value that makes no monetary sense, promote the land for a fraction of what they as soon as had, or uproot their household and begin over elsewhere. For Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt, the fireplace did not simply take their residence — it worn out years of fairness, stability, and safety, leaving them caught between unattainable math and heartbreaking selections.
